Original ArticlesResults of graft patency by immediate angiography in minimally invasive coronary artery surgery
Section snippets
Patients and methods
From December 1996 through December 1997, 100 of 103 consecutive patients undergoing minimally invasive LIMA to LAD procedure by a limited access approach were studied by intraoperative or immediate postoperative angiography. The patient demographics and characteristics of the study population are contained in Table 1. There were two main population cohorts. One group was young, healthy patients with single-vessel disease who usually presented with LAD re-stenosis after a previous
Results
Between December 1996 and December 1997, a total of 103 patients underwent isolated revascularization of the LAD using the LIMA by a limited access approach on a beating heart. All patients who underwent this procedure during this time period were included in this study. Patients in this time period who underwent conventional coronary artery bypass grafting, beating heart revascularization by a median sternotomy approach, or more than one bypass through a limited access incision were not
Comment
Numerous issues are raised by this study, including the role of immediate angiography in the evaluation of LIMA graft patency, the significance of abnormal angiographic findings, and the comparability of these results with existing data regarding LIMA patency in conventional coronary artery bypass grafting.
Regarding the technique of intraoperative angiography, numerous issues exist. Should it be performed by the surgeon or by a cardiologist? In our institution, when performing intraoperative
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