A Review of Coronary Artery Bypass Reoperation / 日本心臓血管外科学会雑誌

ABSTRACT

We performed coronary artery bypass operation on 258 patients from July 1974 to February 1993, of whom 10 underwent a total of 11 reoperations. These 10 patients were not significantly different from the other patients with respect to gender, coronary risk factors and number of grafts used in the first operation, aside from older age and lower LVEF. The interval between the two operations was <1 year (early) or about 10 years (late) in most instances. The most common reasons for reoperation were graft failure from technical problems in early and time-related alterations in graft and progression of original disease in late cases. The outcome of reoperation was less than satisfactory, with 2 operative deaths, IABP required in 5, reoperation for bleeding needed in 3 and severe sternal wound infection of the patent vein graft postoperatively, of which atheromatous debris released from the atherosclerotic vein graft was strongly suspected to be the cause. The old vein graft should be immediately ligated at the beginning of CPB in cases with diffuse atherosclerotic vein graft in which more than several years have passed since initial operation. In reoperation, arterial graft is preferable, especially GEA graft can be used advantageously even with a left thoracotomy approach. Bypass reoperation for occlusion of LAD or Cx should be performed by a left thoracotomy approach.