Proximal internal mammary in situ graft and distal coronary-coronary graft

When a left anterior descending coronary artery passes over the cardiac apex and presents with 2 stenoses, 1 proximal and 1 distal, the available bypass conduit often is too short to enable both the anastomosis below the distal stenosis and the sequential anastomosis on the arterial segment between the 2 stenoses. In this circumstance, we graft the internal mammary artery in situ onto the proximal segment of the left anterior descending coronary artery, then use a short residual segment of the internal mammary to perform a coronary-coronary bypass of the distal stenosis. This technique also spares segments of the internal mammary for other purposes. We present our experience, together with angiographic evidence of long-term patency.