Survivor Selection after CABG: Why Early Events Still Matter in Five-Year Mortality Estimates

Dear Editor,

I reviewed with great interest the article titled “Five-Year Mortality among Survivors of Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery: A Retrospective Study from a Tertiary Center,” authored by Moreira et al. The authors should be commended for addressing a clinically relevant question by reporting five-year all-cause and cause-specific mortality among patients discharged after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). The linkage of institutional clinical data with governmental mortality records and the simultaneous evaluation of clinical, echocardiographic, and procedural factors provide a useful framework for interpreting long-term risk after surgical revascularization. The reported five-year all-cause mortality of 12.9% and cardiovascular mortality of 5.7% are therefore valuable for post-discharge risk stratification and follow-up planning.

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