[Upper abdominal complications after coronary artery bypass operations using right gastroepiploic artery]

We discussed upper abdominal complications after 161 coronary artery bypass graftings using right gastroepiploic artery (RGEA). We had one case of bleeding from RGEA branches (1), one case of pyrolus stenosis because of anterior stomach pressed by RGEA (2), three cases of gastric ulcer (3) (three cases with a past history of gastric ulcer, two case with IABP) and one case of gastric perforation (4) as early postoperative complications. As long-term postoperative complications, we had two cases of abdominal hernia (5) and two cases of gastric cancer (6). The cases of number 1, 2 and 3 are solvable because these are technical problem. As concerns gastric mucosal ischemic complications (3.4), long-term antiulcerative medication was required for the patients with gastric ulcer as a past history or with IAPB, RGEA should not be used in case of bad general condition. And as far as gastric cancer is concerned, frequent gastric fiberscopic examinations are necessary after CABG using RGEA for the purpose of finding out early gastric cancer until we can perform culative gastrectomy without cutting RGEA.