Exclusive Bilateral Internal Thoracic Artery Grafts for Myocardial Revascularization Requiring Four Anastomoses or More: Outcomes from a Single Center Experience.

Introduction  Multivessel coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) with bilateral internal thoracic arteries (BITA) has only been uncommon and technically demanding. We describe our experience with BITA only CABGs requiring ≥ 4 anastomoses. Material and Methods  The department's database was queried for patients undergoing isolated CABG with ≥ 4 anastomoses. The surgical technique included systematically a right internal thoracic artery (ITA) of left ITA Y graft. The multivariate model included variables with a p  < 0.3 at univariate analysis. Results  Between January 2006 and December 2009, 251 consecutive patients (71 ± 10 years) (on-pump: 130, off-pump: 121) had CABG with ≥ 4 anastomoses, representing 21% of total isolated CABGs for the same period; all patients received a totally arterial BITA only revascularization. Follow-up was 4.9 ± 1.6 years. Overall and cardiac cumulative survivals were 78 and 92%, respectively, at 5 years. The occurrence of any major postoperative complication was associated with overall and cardiac mortality (odds ratio [OR]: 3.6, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.3-9.9 and OR: 5.4, 95% CI: 1.3-21.9, respectively). Major sternal wound complication requiring surgical revision was not associated with impaired glucose control ( n  = 9; diabetics: 6/82, 7.3%; nondiabetics: 3/169, 1.8%, p  = 0.06). Preoperative kidney failure was associated with incomplete revascularization (OR: 6.2; 95% CI: 1.2-33.5), that was unfailingly due to ungraftable right coronary artery targets. Discussion  BITA only revascularization was a valuable and safe procedure, with favorable results in terms of morbidity and mortality at a 5 years' follow-up.
Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.
(Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)