Emergency Bypass Surgery?
In most cases, you are told in advance that you need to have bypass surgery and the surgery is scheduled ahead of time. However, sometimes emergency bypass surgery is required – during a heart attack, for example, or if a procedure such as balloon angioplasty goes wrong and bypass is required to correct the problem.
Studies suggest that women are more likely than men to undergo emergency bypass.15 This may be because women with heart disease often present with different symptoms than men, which may make diagnosis more difficult. There is also research showing that women consider themselves less likely than men to have a heart attack, and therefore may delay seeking treatment.16 When bypass is performed in emergency circumstances, it is a riskier procedure than if the surgery is planned in advance.16
Sometimes balloon angioplasty or stenting fails and the patient has to undergo emergency bypass surgery. This is referred to as “rescue” bypass. Today, this occurs rarely; its use decreased from 1 out of 70 patients in 1992 to 1 out of 700 in the year 2000.17 Women are more likely than men to require rescue bypass and the procedure is associated with higher rates of death and complications than elective bypass surgery. Exactly why women more often require rescue bypass is not clear, although it may be because their smaller blood vessels make them more likely to experience complications during balloon angioplasty.
