To evaluate the impact of drug-eluting stent (DES) on transferring treatment with coronary surgical revascularization among the patients initially admitted to department of internal medicine. 2598 patients initially admitted in department of internal medicine underwent revascularization by percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) before the introduction of DES from 1 July 2001 to 30 June 2002 bare metal stent (BMS) era group, n = 923) or after the introduction of DES from 1 July 2003 to 30 June 2004 (DES era group). The clinical manifestations and coronary angiography characteristics were analyzed retrospectively. In the DES era group 1333 patients (80.1%) were revascularized with PCI, and 331 patients (19.9%) were transferred to treatment with CABG; and in the BMS era group, 721 patients (77.2%) underwent PCI, and 213 patients (22.8%) were transferred to treatment with CABG. The rate of transference to CABG of the DES era group was lower by 12.7% compared with the B