Bangalore S, Maron DJ, Stone GW, et al. - By analyzing randomized trials comparing routine revascularization vs an initial conservative strategy in patients having stable ischemic heart disease, researchers sought to determine if revascularization attenuates mortality and other cardiovascular outcomes in these patients. They explored PUBMED/EMBASE/Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials to identify relevant studies. The inclusion criteria was satisfied by 14 randomized clinical trials with 14,877 patients observed for a weighted mean of 4.5 years with 64,678 patient-years of follow-up. Findings revealed that although improved survival was not provided by routine revascularization in patients with stable ischemic heart disease but these patients who were treated with routine revascularization were found to have a lower risk of nonprocedural myocardial infarction (MI) and unstable angina with greater freedom from angina at the expense of higher rates of procedural MI.