Coronary artery anatomy before and after direct revascularization surgery: clinical and cinearteriographic studies in 67 selected patients

This report relates the postoperative clinical and cineangiographic status of 67 patients selected from a total of 202 patients who underwent coronary artery surgery at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital from July, 1970, to July, 1972. The mean interval after operation was 12.6 months. Ninety-one per cent of the 67 patients were improved from their preoperative status. Forty-eight patients (71 per cent) were studied to evaluate recurrence of mild to moderate angina or occurrence of interval myocardial infarction, and 19 patients (29 per cent) were entirely asymptomatic. In the 67 patients studied, 112 coronary arteries received a total of 115 grafts. (There were 89 ungrafted coronary arteries). Total graft patency rate for the 58 patients in whom angina was totally or significantly relieved was 65 per cent. However, one or more grafts were patent in 52 (90 per cent) of these 58 patients. In grafted arteries, progression was found in segments proximal to the graft in 37 per cent of arteries, at the site of anastomosis in 10 per cent, and distal to the site of anastomosis in 17 per cent. The frequency of obstruction distal to the site of anastomosis was not significantly different from the frequency of progression in nongrafted arteries, in contrast to preliminary data from this laboratory. Overall and regional progression in grafted arteries appeared to occur primarily within the first four months after surgery and was found, thereafter, in a constant percentage of vessels studied. Progression in coronary arteries was independent of patency or occlusion of the graft to the vessel. It is hypothesized that while proximal progression is probably a consequence of altered hydraulic factors, distal lesions seem to represent natural progression of atherosclerotic disease.