The importance of cholesterol-lowering in patients after coronary artery bypass surgery

Patients with aortocoronary bypass surgery generally have a severe, advanced coronary atherosclerosis. An intensive risk-factor management should be of special importance in these patients. However, cholesterol treatment goals are the same for operated or non-operated patients with coronary artery disease. Effective cholesterol lowering does not only decrease the progression of atherosclerosis in native coronary vessels but also helps to prevent the development of atherosclerosis in venous bypass grafts. Clinical studies demonstrated that this leads to an improvement of clinical endpoints. Unfortunately we know from registries, that even in bypass patients recommended guidelines for cholesterol lowering are often not followed.