Coronary Heart Disease : Surgeries

_{Unnecessary Surgeries}

In 1974, 2.4 million unnecessary surgeries were performed, resulting in 11,900 deaths at a cost of $3.9 billion.
In 2001, 7.5 million unnecessary surgical procedures were performed, resulting in 37,136 deaths at a cost of $122 billion.

_{US Congressional House Subcommittee Oversight Investigation}

Angioplasty

“Every single study I am aware of involving stenting, angioplasty, or any intervention does not change the prognosis.” ₍₁₎
“The risk of death from a myocardial infarction (heart attack) is exactly the same after the intervention as it was before the intervention.” _{(2) (3)}

_{(1) Steven E. Nissen, M.D., FACC, vice-chairman of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation}

_{(2) Meier, B. S. B. Kig. A. R. Gruentzig et al. 1984. Repeat coronary angioplasty. J am. Coll. Cardiol, 4 :463}

_{(3) Cequier Mauri. Gomez-Hospital, et al 1997 Rev. Esp.Cardiol.50 supplement 2 pp21-30}

_{Craver, Justicz, Weitraub et al, Ann. Thorac. Surg.60 (1):60-65}

After surgery, “One third of arteries clog up again in less than 6 months.” ₍₁₎
“Increasing the risk for coronary thrombosis.” _{(2) (3)}

_{(1) Steven E. Nissen, M.D., FACC, vice-chairman of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation}

_{(2)Meier, B. S. B. Kig. A. R. Gruentzig et al. 1984. Repeat coronary angioplasty. J am. Coll. Cardiol, 4 :463}

_{(3) Cequier Mauri. Gomez-Hospital, et al 1997 Rev. Esp.Cardiol.50 supplement 2 pp21-30}

“One out of sixteen patients will experience an abrupt vessel closure during the procedure, which can lead to death, heart attack or an emergency bypass operation.”

_{Page 1368-9in Lincoff AM, and Topol EJ. ”Interventional catherization techniques.” In E.Braunwald (ed.), Heart Disease: A Textbook of Cardiovascular Medecine, pp. 1366-1391. Philadelphia, PA: W.B. Saunders, 1997}

“On an average less than four month after the procedure the arteries will close again.”

_{Hirshfeld JW, Schwartz JS, Jugo R, “Restenosis after coronary angioplasty:}

_{a multivariate statistical model to relate lesion and procedure}

_{variables to restenosis.” J. Am> Coll. Cardiol. 18 (1991): 647-656.}

“The 250,000 balloon angioplasties performed in 1992, none could be justified.”
_{Martin Hadler, MD, Professor of Medicine at the University Of North Caroline School Of Medicine}

“Because balloon angioplasty does not prevent death or myocardial infarction.”
_{Review of the Evidence and Methodological Considerations}

_{Charanjit S. Rihal, MD; Dominic L. Raco, MD; Bernard J. Gersh, MB, ChB, DPhil; Salim Yusuf, FRCP, DPhil}

Studies That Have Found That Angioplasty Prolongs Life: 0

Bypass Surgery

“Among 181 low-risk patients, the bypass group had a much higher cumulative mortality rate (31.2%) compared to the non-surgery group (16.8%).

_{American Journal of Cardiology 74 (September 1, 1994): 454-58}

Risk of dying during surgery: 4.6 – 11.9%. ₍₁₎
Risk of permanent brain damage: Assessment with Neuropsychological testing: 15 – 44% ₍₂₎
_{(1) Salonen J. T.K. Circulation 91 – 641-655}

_{(2) Brain damage and open heart surgery 1989 Lancet August 12 pp364-366}

Only about 11% of all bypass operations are performed on heart patients for whom surgery clearly prolongs life: Only those suffering an obstruction of the left main artery.
_{The National Institute of Health 1983}

Bypass operations jumped from 21,000 in 1971 to 407,000 in 1991.
Coronary artery bypass graft surgery (GABG) is pronounced “Cabbage” by surgeons. At $50,000 a pop, they love cabbage!

Heart & Arteries Catheterization

This method had never been under scientific scrutiny or trials and should be considered as highly experimental and dangerous. However, more than 500,000 people undergo the pain of having this procedure every year.
We are told that “Heart catheterization is a minimally invasive procedure” and a doctor will send you to take the test if “they feel the necessity to measure the ability of your heart to pump blood.“

A study on the use of right heart catheterization was done on 5,735 critically ill adults found that this test was “associated with increased mortality and increased utilization of resources.”

_{A. F. Connors Jr, T. Speroff, N. V. Dawson, C. Thomas, F. E. Harrell Jr, D. Wagner, N. Desbiens, L. Goldman, A. W. Wu, R. M. Califf, W. J. Fulkerson Jr, H. Vidaillet, S. Broste, P. Bellamy, J. Lynn and W. A. Knaus}_{Department of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University at MetroHealth Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.}

Patients who underwent pulmonary artery catheterization were almost invariably more likely to die. _{(1) (2)}

_{(1)Gore JM, Goldberg RJ, Spodick DH, Alpert JS, Dalen JE. A community-wide assessment of the use of pulmonary}

_{artery catheters in patients with acute myocardial infarction. Chest. 1987;92:721-727}

_{(2) Blumberg MS, Binns GS. Swan-Ganz catheter use and mortality of myocardial infarction patients.}

_{Health Care Financ Rev. 1994;15:91-103}

The US Office Of Technology Assessment Declaration On Medical Procedures:

“Only 10 to 20 percent of all procedures currently used in medical practice have been shown to be efficacious by controlled trial. Therefore 80% to 90% of medical procedures routinely performed are unproven.”

_{Assessing the Efficacy and Safety of Medical Technologies. Washington, DC, Congress of the United States,

Office of Technology Assessment, Publication No. 052003-00593-0.}
Only about 15% of medical interventions are supported by solid scientific evidence. This is partly because only 1% of the articles in medical journals are scientifically sound and partly because many treatments have not been assessed at all.”
_{Richard Smith, Editor of the British Medical Journal}

What a Surgeon Will Never Tell You:

“In a five-year follow-up of 409 heart patients, scientists found that aggressively controlling cardiovascular disease risk factors with diet and medications shrunk atherosclerotic plaques.” ₍₁₎
“Very few of the patients required surgery or suffered heart attacks among those who followed the very low-fat, near-vegetarian diet and took meds to keep their cholesterol and other risk factors under maximal control, only 3% died.” ₍₂₎

_{(1) (2) Journal of American College of Cardiology, 2003; 41: 263}

“A physician can influence patients in the decision to adopt a very low-fat diet that, combined with lipid-lowering drugs, can reduce cholesterol levels to below 150 mg/dL and uniformly result in the arrest or reversal of coronary artery disease.”

_{Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr, MD; Stephen G. Ellis, MD;}

_{Sharon V. Medendorp, MPH; and Timothy D. Crowe}