One hundred reoperations were performed on 93 patients of a total of 2287 patients who underwent initial coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) between September 1972 and August 1988. The mean age of the 84 males and 9 females was 55.5 years (range 31-75 years). All patients prior to reoperation had severe angina and were judged to be in NYHA class III or class IV. Late graft failure alone or in combination with progressive atherosclerosis accounted for more than 60% of the cases requiring reoperation. The early mortality for reoperation was 1% compared with 1.4% for initial CABG. Perioperative myocardial infarction was recorded as a complication in 3.2% of cases at initial operation compared with 1% at reoperation. Symptomatic improvement occurred in 89.1% of cases after reoperation and almost 60% became entirely asymptomatic (mean follow-up interval 17 months).