Objective: We sought to compare early clinical outcomes in patients receiving a right internal thoracic artery or a radial artery as the second arterial graft in myocardial revascularization.
Methods: We retrospectively studied 58 consecutive patients who underwent coronary artery bypass surgery and received both a left internal thoracic artery graft and either a right internal thoracic artery (n=20) or a radial artery graft (n=38), between January 2004 and March 2006. Hospital mortality, pleural drainage, operative time and postoperative complications were analyzed.
Results: There were no significant preoperative differences between groups. There was only one (1.7%) in-hospital death which occurred in the Radial Group. Operative times was significantly higher in the Right Internal Thoracic Group (p-value = 0.0018), but were not associated with increased Intensive Care Unit stays, mechanical ventilation or other postoperative complications. We were able to perform significantly more distal anastomosis using the radial artery than the right internal thoracic artery (1.57 versus 1.05: p-value =0.003).
Conclusion: In our group of patients, the use of a right internal thoracic artery as a second arterial graft was associated with a prolonged operative time, but had no interference with the immediate clinical outcomes.