Evaluation of early postoperative coronary artery bypass graft patency by contrast-enhanced computed tomography

Fifty patients with 117 coronary bypass grafts were studied by contrast-enhanced computed tomography at an average of 5 +/- 4 days after surgery to determine if this technique was a feasible method for detecting early postoperative graft occlusion. The study was limited in only three patients because of incisional chest pain (one patient) or multiple metal clips attached to the graft (two patients). The distal patency of sequential grafts cannot be determined by current techniques. There was a lower graft patency rate (70%) in the 10 patients with perioperative myocardial infarction than in the 40 (95%) without (p less than 0.025), but most regions of infarcted myocardium were perfused by patent grafts. There were eight graft occlusions in eight patients. The graft occlusion rate (30%) was significantly higher (p less than 0.025) in grafts with intraoperative flows less than 45 ml/min. The postoperative complications of myocardial dysfunction, arrhythmia and coronary artery spasm did not correlate with graft occlusion. Early graft occlusion is uncommon (7%) and usually occurs in grafts with low flows or severe distal disease (seven of eight grafts), or both. Thus, the need for early reoperation is very infrequent. It is concluded that contrast-enhanced computed tomography is feasible for the assessment of coronary bypass graft patency. Because early graft occlusion is unusual the technique may be an ideal noninvasive screening method.