Women with multi-vessel coronary heart disease, like men, have better long-term survival if they undergo coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) using more than one arterial graft, an observational study shows.

Canadian researchers used data on nearly 11,000 women in Ontario who underwent single (3000 women) or multiple arterial grafting (8000) for left main, double or triple vessel disease in a non-emergency setting between 2008 and 2019.

Data for 2446 women with multiple grafts was compared with the same number of women who had single grafts, and who had been closely matched for values of 21 different potential confounders.

The 10-year survival was significantly greater in the patients who had more grafts (70.7% vs 67.3%) and this equated to a 15% lower death rate over the follow-up period (median five years, maximum 11 years), the researchers said.