Angioplasty as a Treatment for Coronary Artery Disease

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Abstract
GIVEN the prevalence of coronary artery disease and its considerable cost to society, selecting the optimal approach to treatment for each patient is an important health care issue. During the 1970s, several large clinical trials compared medical therapy with coronary-artery bypass surgery; these studies demonstrated that surgery improved survival and reduced the risk of myocardial infarction only for patients with left main or severe multivessel coronary disease, particularly when accompanied by left ventricular dysfunction.1 Although bypass surgery offered patients with less extensive coronary artery disease no net improvement over their already excellent prospects for survival with medical therapy, it did . . .