Clinical evaluation with exercise performance in twenty patients who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting with both the gastroepiploic and internal thoracic arteries

Abstract

Postoperative exercise performance was evaluated in 20 patients who underwent complete coronary revascularization with simultaneous right gastroepiploic artery and internal thoracic artery grafts for ischemic heart disease and exhibited patency of all grafts on postoperative angiograms. Three patients received only arterial grafts, and 17 simultaneously received a saphenous vein graft. Forty five right gastroepiploic artery grafts were harvested during this study, but two were not used because of foci of severe calcification. The right gastroepiploic artery was grafted to the distal right coronary artery in 17 patients and to the distal obtuse marginal branches in three patients, accompanied by an internal thoracic artery graft to the left anterior descending artery in seventeen, to the diagonal branch in three, and to the proximal right coronary artery in one patient. A postoperative exercise test with a bicycle ergonometer was administered 6 to 12 weeks after the operation, and the results are reported after conversion into metabolic units. The preoperative exercise test resulted in 3.6 +/- 1.9 metabolic units for 18 patients tested, and the postoperative metabolic units were 7.8 +/- 1.3 for 20 patients. Left ventricular wall motion was analyzed by regional ejection fraction before and after coronary artery bypass grafting in 14 patients who received an right gastroepiploic artery graft for the right coronary system. The mean regional ejection fraction of the posterobasal or diaphragmatic wall was 28.0% or 28.2% before operation and improved to 43.1% or 43.2% after coronary artery bypass graft, respectively. The flow of right gastroepiploic artery seemed to distribute adequately to the revascularized area. Long-term results have not yet been proved; the use of simultaneous right gastroepiploic artery and internal thoracic artery grafts, however, thus produced excellent results, as seen from improvements in both left ventricular wall motion and early postoperative exercise performance.