Off-pump Bilateral Internal Thoracic Artery Grafting.

BACKGROUND: The long-term benefit of bilateral internal thoracic grafts (BITA) is well established. BITA grafting is often avoided in diabetic, female, obese, elderly and other high-risk patients because of concerns for deep sternal wound infection. The objective of this study is to analyse early results of our BITA grafting and to establish the safety of BITA use in all patients. METHODS: All cases of isolated consecutive unselected CABG were included in this retrospective study. BITA were used in-situ - one was used to graft left anterior descending artery and the other was used as inflow for a composite graft with radial artery. Dual inflow using in situ BITA grafting allows easy bailout by using an additional vein graft. RESULTS: BITA was used in 574 patients out of 602 (95.35%). Incidence of early death was 1.33% (8/602), stroke 0.5% (3/602), reoperation for bleeding 0.17% (1/602). Deep sternal wound infection was not seen in any patient but nine patients (1.5%) had superficial wound infection which healed with dressing. CONCLUSION: We have used BITA in 95% of our unselected, consecutive off-pump CABG patients without any major wound complications. Our limited experience has shown off-pump CABG using BITA grafting can be safely adopted routinely with excellent early result.

Intraaortic balloon pump boon for off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting.

BACKGROUND: Off-pump coronary artery bypass techniques have evolved in the past decade, but there are some concerns about hemodynamic decompensation requiring conversion to cardiopulmonary bypass. These conversions are associated with higher morbidity and mortality. We use an intraaortic balloon pump to treat ischemia-induced hemodynamic instability and arrhythmias during off-pump coronary artery bypass. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of intraaortic balloon pump use in off-pump coronary artery bypass to prevent emergency conversion to cardiopulmonary bypass. METHODS: Data of 529 consecutive unselected patients who underwent isolated coronary artery bypass were included in this retrospective study of prospectively collected data and operation notes. Complete revascularization was performed using an off-pump technique. All arterial grafts using bilateral internal mammary arteries, and aortic no-touch technique were preferred. If the clinical situation demanded, vein grafts were used. During the procedure, any hemodynamic compromise not responding to conventional inotropic therapy was treated with intraaortic balloon pump insertion. RESULTS: Complete revascularization was possible in all 529 patients. An intraaortic balloon pump was inserted in 33 (6.2%) patients to treat hemodynamic instability; in all cases, conversion to cardiopulmonary bypass was avoided and complete revascularization was achieved. CONCLUSION: For treating hemodynamic instability during off-pump coronary artery bypass, we recommend intraaortic balloon pump insertion as the preferred bail-out method rather than conversion to cardiopulmonary bypass.