The short-term outcome of bilateral internal thoracic artery use in patients undergoing off pump coronary bypass surgery

Purpose: The use of bilateral internal thoracic artery (BITA) grafting has shown a better survival benefit when compared to single internal thoracic artery (SITA) grafting. This study was undertaken to evaluate the short-term outcome of using BITA in patients undergoing off pump coronary bypass surgery.

Method: The data of all patients who underwent off pump coronary bypass surgery between 1/2009-12/2010 were retrieved from our data bank. We investigated how the use of BITA compared to the use of SITA correlated to postoperative endpoints: troponin, creatine kinase MB (CK-MB), atrial fibrillation, blood transfusion, intubation time, intensive care unit (ICU) days and mortality.

Result: 384 patients underwent off pump coronary bypass surgery and of those 48.4% received BITA grafting. There was no difference between BITA and SITA grafting in regard to postoperative troponin, CK-MB, blood transfusion, intubation time, ICU days and mortality. There was a significant higher incidence of atrial fibrillation in the SITA compared to the BITA grafting group 20% versus 9% (p < 0.001).

Conclusion: Our analysis shows that in off pump coronary bypass surgery the use of BITA grafting significantly reduces the postoperative rate of atrial fibrillation.