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Article: VARYING MORTALITY RATES AFTER BYPASS SURGERY RAISES QUESTIONS
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- November 23, 1989
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright (null) The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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NEW ORLEANS - The chances of dying during or just after
coronary bypass surgery vary significantly among hospitals and
heart surgeons in northern New England, but not because some
centers and some doctors take on sicker patients.
This finding, reported at the American Heart Association's
scientific sessions here last week, refutes the usual explanation
offered by heart surgeons for varying mortality rates.
"Typically surgeons say, 'My patients are older and sicker' if
they have higher mortality rates," noted the study's director, Dr.
Gerald T. O'Connor of Dartmouth Medical School.
Thus, surgeons frequently contend that surgical death rates do
not mean anything unless the "case ...