Recovering from Bypass Surgery: How Quality of Life Bounces Back — and Then Exceeds the Starting Point
Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is one of the most performed cardiac surgical procedures worldwide, and while it reliably improves survival, its effect on a patient’s lived experience is far less predictable. Some patients feel transformed within weeks; others struggle for months. To understand this trajectory, researchers in Cyprus designed a prospective multicentre study across three hospitals to track quality of life before and after surgery.
Patients undergoing elective CABG were assessed with the MacNew Heart Disease Health-Related Quality of Life Questionnaire preoperatively and at 3 and 6 months postoperatively. The team also examined associations with age, gender, postoperative arrhythmias, left ventricular ejection fraction, and the type of surgery performed — using non-parametric methods appropriate for the data distribution.
The MacNew revealed a clear and clinically meaningful pattern: at 3 months, health-related quality of life had actually declined compared with baseline (4.75 ± 1.00 vs 5.03 ± 1.02; p = .015), reflecting the well-known early recovery burden. By 6 months, however, MacNew scores had risen to 5.99 ± 0.67 — significantly exceeding preoperative values. Male gender was associated with higher MacNew scores at both follow-up points.
These findings reinforce why MacNew belongs in standard postoperative monitoring after CABG. Its sensitivity to short-term decline and long-term recovery gives clinicians a window into the patient’s perspective that survival statistics alone simply cannot provide — and supports tailored aftercare for patients at risk of slower recovery.
Reference:
Alexandrou, K., Middleton, N., Kyranou, M., & Sarafis, P. (2026). Health-Related Quality of Life and Associated Factors Before and After Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting: A Multicentre Prospective Study in Cyprus. Interdisciplinary Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, 41(5). https://doi.org/10.1093/icvts/ivag126