Long-term survival after coronary bypass surgery with internal-thoracic-artery grafts

Canadian Medical Association Journal 1996; 154: 1533-1534

Source: Cameron A, Davis KB, Green G et al: Coronary bypass surgery with internal-thoracic-artery grafts: effects on survival over a 15-year period. N Engl J Med 1996; 334: 216-219

A study conducted in 15 US and Canadian centres compared 15-year survival rates among 749 patients who had undergone internal-thoracic-artery (ITA) coronary bypass grafting and 4888 patients who had undergone saphenous-vein (SV) bypass grafting only. Multivariate analysis identified the presence of an ITA graft as an independent predictor of improved survival at 15 years. Recipients of ITA grafts had a significantly reduced relative risk of death compared with recipients of SV grafts, regardless of age, sex or preoperative left-ventricular function. The divergence of survival curves for ITA-graft and SV-graft recipients accelerated after 8 years; the researchers attributed this result to the relatively high resistance of ITA grafts to atherosclerosis.

CMAJ May 15, 1996 (vol 154, no 10)