Arterial bypass grafting of the coronary circulation

Surgical coronary bypass has evolved continually, and recent developments favor performing coronary grafts with all-arterial conduits in order to obtain better long-term graft patencies. With bilateral internal mammary artery grafts and both radial arteries, four excellent arterial conduits exist for revascularization of the majority of multivessel disease patients, including those with valve disorders. Using contemporary surgical techniques, it is possible to obtain greater than 95% overall long-term graft patencies that translate into better outcomes, including improved survival, freedom from myocardial infarction, percutaneous coronary intervention , and redo coronary bypass. Two-thirds of patients receive a right internal mammary artery to the left anterior descending , a left internal mammary artery to the circumflex coronary artery system, and a radial artery to the right coronary artery Using newer management techniques, early postoperative complications, including the incidence of sternal infections, are extremely uncommon, and all-arterial grafts currently are used in over 75% of multivessel patients including those with concomitant valve disease. Because patencies and outcomes are so much better than with standard coronary bypass or percutaneous coronary intervention, referring physicians frequently favor all-arterial bypass as the primary therapy for patients with prognostically serious multivessel obstruction. Thus, all-arterial bypass could play an increasingly important role in the future treatment of severe coronary atherosclerosis.