Coronary Revascularization With Single Versus Bilateral Mammary Arteries: Is It Time to Change?

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-1-2018

Institution/Department

Surgery

Journal Title

The Annals of thoracic surgery

MeSH Headings

Cohort Studies, Coronary Angiography, Coronary Artery Bypass, Coronary Artery Disease, Female, Humans, Internal Mammary-Coronary Artery Anastomosis, Kaplan-Meier Estimate, Male, Postoperative Complications, Prognosis, Proportional Hazards Models, Registries, Retrospective Studies, Risk Assessment, Severity of Illness Index, Statistics, Nonparametric, Survival Analysis, Treatment Outcome

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Arterial conduits are preferred to venous conduits for coronary artery bypass grafting because of longer patency. A single internal mammary artery (SIMA) is used routinely. Bilateral internal mammary arteries (BIMA) are used less frequently. We sought to determine whether BIMA were superior to SIMA.

METHODS: From our regional registry of consecutive open heart operations, we identified 47,984 patients who underwent isolated coronary artery bypass grafting from 1992 to 2014. Of the 1,482 BIMA patients, 1,297 were propensity matched to a cohort of SIMA patients. Short-term outcomes were compared using standard statistical techniques. Long-term survival was compared using Kaplan-Meier estimators and compared using a log-rank test.

RESULTS: BIMA patients were younger and had fewer comorbid conditions than SIMA patients. After propensity weighting, BIMA and SIMA patients were well matched. There was no difference in in-hospital outcomes for BIMA versus SIMA patients for mortality (1.2% [n = 15] vs 0.8% [n = 10], p = 0.315), stroke (0.7% [n = 9] vs 0.7% [n = 9), p = 1.000), bleeding (2.2% [n = 28] vs 2.8% [n = 36], p = 0.311), or mediastinitis (0.8% [n = 10] vs 0.9% [n = 12], p = 0.667). The median follow-up was 12 years. Survival was better for BIMA than SIMA (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.79; 95% confidence interval, 0.69 to 0.91; p < 0.001). Survival curves began to separate after 5 years. At 15 years, the absolute difference in survival was 8.4%.

CONCLUSIONS: In a large regional experience, BIMA is associated with no upfront risk of adverse events and improved long-term survival compared with SIMA. Our results indicate that BIMA conduits should be considered more frequently during coronary artery bypass grafting due to their demonstrated survival advantage.

ISSN

1552-6259

First Page

466

Last Page

472

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