According to the study, patients with severe but stable heart disease won't cut their risk of having a heart attack or dying by having surgery instead of medication.
The results challenge medical dogma and call into question some of the most common practices in heart care.
According to the report's authors it is the strongest evidence yet that tens of thousands of costly surgical procedures and operations are either unnecessary or premature.
Dr. Glenn Levine of Baylor University in Texas says he believes the majority of patients would prefer to be treated by medicines alone, rather than have invasive heart surgery.
"I think the bottom line message in this study is that many patients with stable symptoms, not having a lot of chest pains, will do just as well treated with medicine alone, compared to medicines plus fixing their heart blockages."
