Elderly patients with diabetes fare better with heart bypass surgery than with angioplasty, according to a recent study.

For the population at large, the difference between the two procedures was nominal, according to the report from researchers at Stanford University in California. When it came to diabetic seniors between the ages of 65 and 75, however, the bypass surgery proved significantly less deadly. While approximately 15% of the 7,800 patients looked at for the trial died, older diabetics were 30% less likely to die after receiving bypass surgery, as opposed to an angioplasty, according to the report.

Younger patients experienced the opposite reaction to the two types of heart surgery. Those aged 55 and under 25% more likely to die after undergoing bypass surgery. The report appears in a recent edition of The Lancet medical journal.