Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is associated with higher survival rate than percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) among patients presenting with multivessel coronary artery disease, according to new findings to be presented at the 59th Annual Meeting of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) in San Diego.

“The findings of our study were very convincing,” J. Hunter Mehaffey MD, MSc, a specialist with the department of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at West Virginia University, said in a prepared statement previewing the conference. “The singular message to the public is that the optimal treatment for multivessel coronary artery disease—to improve not only long-term survival but also lower your risk of complications—is coronary artery bypass surgery.”

Researchers examined data from more than 100,000 patients with multivessel coronary disease. This included approximately 51,000 patients who underwent CABG and approximately 52,000 patients who underwent PCI. Overall, the study found that CABG patients from this cohort were less likely to die while hospitalized for their procedure—and they were less likely to require an additional stenting procedure or related intervention in the following three years.