INADEQUATE MANAGEMENT OF HYPERLIPIDEMIA AFTER CORONARY-BYPASS SURGERYSHOWN BY MEDICAL AUDIT

Objective-To management patients who have had coronary bypass surgery. Patients-100 consecutive patients (81 men), mean age 61, who had surv ived at least 3 months after coronary bypass surgery. Methods-Retrospe ctive review of case notes and computerised biochemistry records. Resu lts-83 patients had at least one lipid measurement in the hospital, an d of the remaining 17 patients, 10 had undergone urgent or emergency s urgery. The median (range) total cholesterol was 6.7 (4.0-11.7) mmol/1 and the triglyceride concentration was 2.1 (0.6-18.4) mmol/l. Only 30 patients were referred to a dietician, and 12 were given a lipid lowe ring drug-these interventions were no more frequent in patients with a cholesterol concentration above than below the median. Conclusions-Al though a high proportion of patients who undergo routine coronary bypa ss surgery have their plasma lipid concentrations measured, many patie nts with raised cholesterol concentrations, who would benefit from lip id lowering interventions, are not offered them.