Eighty-two percent of those who receive the treatment will still be alive five years later, compared to a fifty-six percent survival rate for their peers who do not have the surgery, the study reveals.

Surgeons have avoided recommending heart bypass to octogenarians because they are a higher risk group than younger patients. They experience higher procedure-related mortality, greater post-operative complications, and their operations are generally lengthier and more costly.

Elective Heart Bypass Safest

The result of this conservative course of treatment is that elderly patients are more likely to experience a crisis that requires emergency surgery. Heart bypass under those conditions is significantly riskier than elective surgery performed when the patient is stable, according to researchers.

Due to the high risk factor, the first post-operative year results in a seven percent lower survival rate for octogenarians who have bypass surgery, compared to those who do not undergo the procedure.

Longer, Better Life

However, after the first year, their five-year survival rate is fifty percent greater than the non-surgery group.

Heart bypass surgery also provides patients with a higher quality of life, with fewer major cardiac events, studies indicate.

The team analyzed data from 12,461 cases, including 706 in which the patients were over 80 years of age at the time of surgery. All of the operations were performed between 1996 and 2003 in one specialist unit in England.