Abstract ▼ AI-Helper

Between 1990 and 1998, 41 patients underwent free internal thoracic artery grafting for coronary artery bypass. To investigate usefulness of free internal thoracic artery grafting, we compared the postoperative graft patency of free internal thoracic artery grafts with that of in situ internal thora...

Between 1990 and 1998, 41 patients underwent free internal thoracic artery grafting for coronary artery bypass. To investigate usefulness of free internal thoracic artery grafting, we compared the postoperative graft patency of free internal thoracic artery grafts with that of in situ internal thoracic artery grafts, and compared the long-term results such as actual survival and cardiac-event free rate in patients receiving free internal thoracic artery grafts with those results in patients receiving in situ internal thoracic artery grafts. Postoperative changes in luminal diameter of free internal thoracic artery grafts were calculated as the difference between the first and secondary angiographic evaluation in 17 patients who were followed-up for more than 5 years. The early postoperative graft patency rate of free internal thoracic artery was 95.2%. All these early patent grafts remained patent at the time of the late study. At 9 years post-surgery, patients who received free internal thoracic artery grafts had a survival rate of 100% and a cardiac event-free rate of 77.5%; the luminal diameter enlargement was 0.57 mm, and the mean matching rate increased 27.8%. We conclude that the free internal thoracic artery provides long-term results comparable with those of in situ internal thoracic artery.