The radial artery in coronary re-operations

Abstract

Objectives: Vein graft (VG) failure often leads to coronary re-operation (re-do coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG)). As the internal thoracic artery (ITA(s)) and VG have often already been used and as the VG has usually failed, the radial artery (RA) is ideally suited for use in re-do CABG. We evaluated our experience where the RA(s) was a key conduit in re-do CABG to determine the safety and efficacy and compared this to re-operations where the RA was not used. Methods: Three hundred and fifty-two consecutive patients who had re-do CABG using the RA(s) from July 1995 to March 1999 were studied: mean age 67.3 years, 209 (60%) angina Class III or IV, past acute myocardial infarction (AMI)..