The need for and effectiveness of long-term postoperative beta-blockers in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (coronary artery bypass grafting, CABG) has been controversial. Several recent observational studies have also shown conflicting results. The question of whether patients should be on long-term medication after discharge from the hospital has confused cardiologists when writing discharge orders. Do CABG patients need long-term beta-blockers after discharge from the hospital? Researchers from Peking Union Medical College Hospital and Fu Wai Cardiovascular Hospital in China recently published an article in Circulation that provides a well-documented answer to this question. The trial included 5,926 patients who underwent CABG and were discharged from the hospital in good health, and the researchers retrospectively recorded the patients’ prior history of heart attack and their use of beta-blockers before and after the procedure. The data showed that among those who underwent CABG, beta-blocker use was 50.9% (1280) in patients with a prior history of heart attack and 48.1% (1642) in patients without a prior history of heart attack. Compared with those patients who took beta-blockers regularly (n=2922, 49.3%). The risk of all-cause mortality was significantly higher in those who no longer took beta-blockers after surgery (HR, 1.96; 95% CI, 1.50 to 2.57). In contrast, both all-cause mortality and the rate of adverse cardiovascular events were significantly higher in those who never used beta-blockers: HR 1.42; (1.01 to 2.00) and 1.29 (1.10 to 1.50), respectively. In the infarct-free cohort after CABG, the investigators found that the hazard ratio for all-cause mortality was 1.70 (95% CI, 1.17 to 2.48) in those who discontinued beta-blockers after CABG, but 1.23 (0.76 to 1.99) in those who had never used beta-blockers. Mortality was higher among patients who had a preoperative infarction in the CABG population and were no longer on long-term beta-blockers after surgery (HR, 2.14; 95% CI, 1.43 to 3.20), and the risk of death was 1.59 (1.07 to 2.63) among those who had never used them. The investigators concluded that continuous use of beta-blockers after CABG reduces the risk of long-term mortality and adverse cardiovascular events, regardless of the patient’s prior history of myocardial infarction. Cardiac surgeons should change their medical strategy for discharged patients, advising them not to take it lightly even with coronary artery bypass and to remain on long-term beta-blockers after discharge, and work to increase their long-term beta-blocker dependence.