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After coronary artery bypass graft surgery, physicians often overlook the importance of secondary prevention of coronary disease. This 15-year follow-up study from the Netherlands evaluated the long-term effects of smoking and smoking cessation on 415 patients who had undergone saphenous vein bypass surgery in 1976 and 1977.
Long-term mortality rates were similar for those who smoked at the time of surgery and those who didn't (39 versus 37 percent), and for patients who quit smoking and for continued smokers (39 versus 36 percent). However, the myocardial infarction rate, analyzed from 1 to 15 years after surgery, was 29 percent for patients who smoked at 1 year after surgery, compared with 17 percent for those who stopped smoking after sur…