Background: To evaluate the long-term patency of endarterectomized coronary vessels, we studied patients having recatheterization after coronary artery bypass grafting.
Methods: Forty-one clinical and angiographic variables were analyzed in 97 study patients who had coronary endarterectomy (CE) and in 154 control patients who did not have CE but who had repeat catheterization after coronary artery bypass grafting.
Results: Ninety-seven patients had 132 CEs. The right coronary artery was the most commonly endarterectomized vessel (73 of the 132 endarterectomized vessels). At a mean of 7.1 years of follow-up, significantly fewer bypass grafts to endarterectomized vessels were patent compared with nonendarterectomized vessels (40% of endarterectomized vessels compared with 58% of nonendarterectomized vessels in study patients and 65% in control patients, p = 0.0003). The only predictor of long-term CE graft patency is age-adjusted body surface area (p = 0.0068). Patency in grafts to nonendarterectomized vessels is diminished by hypertension (p = 0.046) and current cigarette use (p = 0.024) and improved by use of mammary artery grafting (p < 0.0001).
Conclusions: These results show that long-term patency in bypass grafts to endarterectomized vessels is less common than in nonendarterectomized vessels and that this patency is related to larger body size. Patency in nonendarterectomized vessels is reduced by risks of arteriosclerosis. This suggests that CE should be used with caution in smaller patients and that aggressive control of risk factors for atherogenesis is particularly important in patients who have CE. On the basis of these results, we speculate that the extent of disease is advanced in patients who require CE.