Even after eight years, CABG is better than PCI for diabetes: The FREEDOM Study Got Longer
CHICAGO - An analysis of patients in the liberty trial shows that the well-known survival advantage of coronary bypass surgery (CABG) over stenting in diabetic patients with multivessel coronary contamination (MVD) has lasted for the better part of a decade. Based in part on FREEDOM, the guidelines already strongly recommend CABG over percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug-eluting stents (DES) for these patients. However, survival rates as long as the median 7.5 years of the current study are rare. In the new study, it was also interesting to see that the difference in late survival between CABG and PCI seemed to be most noticeable in patients younger than 65 years old and those who had ever smoked. Both treatments worked about the same for older patients, and smokers did not benefit from either one (interplay P values for age and smoking popularity, .001 and .01, respectively). In the first trial, 1900 people with diabetes and MVD were given a chance to have either CABG wi