[Reoperative coronary artery bypass grafting in patients with patent internal thoracic artery grafts]

The incidence of reoperative coronary artery bypass grafting (reCABG) is recently increasing. However, there has been no report of reCABG in patients with patent internal thoracic artery (ITA) grafts in Japan. We performed reCABG in three such patients with patent ITA grafts. The first patient was a 49-year-old male who had undergone a 2 CABG (left ITA-LAD, SVG-DX 1), 8 years and 7 months prior to the 2nd operation, he received a re 2 CABG (GEA-RCA, RITA-SVG-DX 1) with a patent prior LITA-LAD graft. The second patient was a 65-year-old female who had undergone CABG in which the LITA had been erroneously anastomosed to the DX 2 in place of the LAD. Three year later, the reCABG (RITA-LAD) was performed with a patent prior LITA-DX 2 graft. The third patient was a 51-year-old male who had undergone 3-CABG (RITA-LAD, LITA-DX, SVG-RCA). The RITA was closed most probably due to technical errors and his angina recurred. Tree year after the first operation, he received a re 3-CABG (GEA-LAD, SVG-RCA, SVG-OM) with a patent prior LITA-DX graft. In each patient, PTCA had been tried twice, twice and once prior to redo operations. Their post-redo courses were uneventful, and they were discharged free from angina. In such cases it is important to manage with care the patent ITA grafts at reoperation. Biplane ITA angiograms are quite helpful to evaluate the course of grafts in relation to the sternum. To cover the ITA graft with a GORE-TEX membrane may also be useful for easy identification of the graft at redo operations.