Intracoronary shunt in off-pump coronary artery bypass graft

This study was performed to compare the early postoperative results of off Pump Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (OPCABG) with or without using Intra Coronary Shunt (ICS). We randomized 208 patients scheduled for OPCABG into shunt group (group 1, n = 104) and no-shunt group (group 2, n = 104). The two groups were well matched according to the age, gender, angina class, New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class, or operative priority and disease severity. Peri- and post-operative changes in electrocardiography, wall motion abnormality in echocardiography, rate of myocardial infarction, mortality, morbidity, cardiac enzymes and ICU stay were recorded. There was no significant difference between two groups in changes of electrocardiography, myocardial infarction, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), in hospital mortality and ICU stay but Creatine Kinase Myocardial Band (CK-MB) enzyme was higher in no shunt group, while troponin-I was increased in shunt group. Preoperative LVEF was higher in no-shunt group, but postoperative LVEF was higher in shunt group (p > 0.05). Also, the change of LVEF before and after operation in each group was not significant. Using intracoronary shunt in off pump coronary artery bypass graft leads to less change in cardiac enzymes but had no effect on perioperative and postoperative myocardial infarction, LVEF, mortality and morbidity.