Dear , The story goes on like this : 1- the heart coronary arteries gets narrowed by many factors including smoking, hypertension and increased cholesterol level . 2- the blood flow to the heart muscle decreases so it can t do its job perfectly. 3- the patient experiences an anginal pain ( chest pain ) on exercise or at rest due to ischemia ( low blood flow ). 4- the patient goes to the Emergency department and discovers one of two : 4a - the heart is still 100% functioning but Ischemic ( no cardiac cell injury ) 4b - the heart has cell injury ( Myocardial Infarction ) and below 100% functioning . 5 - after investigations , the patient performs catheterization , and does one of three : 5a - has to put one stent or more to widen a narrow coronary so increase the blood flow to the heart . 5b - the narrowed coronary arteries can t be widen by stents so he/she has to do open heart surgery to replace them ( CABG ) 5c - the patient can t stand stents or CABG so he/she will go on medical treatment life long . N.B. : any procedure of the above depends on how the heart performs its job , and it is defined by Echocardiography . this sequence to show you that , if you have a stent or more , so you still have the chance to do CABG later on if one of these stents has complications . Concerning the lifespan , 1- lifespan of stents varies from 5-10 years according the type of the stent . 2- lifespan of patents with CABG varies from 5-17 years according to the type of CABG ( venous graft or arterial graft ) considered no other complications . So , 7 years for a stent + 10 years for CABG = 17 years lifespan ( average ) considered a perfect heart with good systolic and diastolic function ( each per age ) . I wish that I gave you the point ... Thanks for asking .