The radial artery in coronary surgery: A 5-year experience - Clinical and angiographic results

Abstract

Background. The radial artery (RA) has been used extensively by us as a way of reducing the use of the saphenous vein. It has been hoped that the RA will maintain greater late patency than the saphenous vein. We evaluated our initial 5-year experience with the RA in coronary surgery. Methods. We studied 6,646 consecutive patients who had a single RA (4,872), or bilateral RA (1,774), as coronary grafts, from June 1995 to June 2000. Angiograms were performed mostly in symptomatic patients, or as part of a research project in asymptomatic patients. Results. The patients' mean age was 65.1 years; 23% had diabetes, 14% had unstable angina, and 42% had prior myocardial infarction. An average of 3...