Can the use of the radial artery be expanded to all patients with different surgical grafting techniques? Early clinical and angiographic results in 600 patients

Objective: The use of the radial artery (RA) as a conduit for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is gaining in popularity worldwide and is being increasingly adopted by many cardiac surgeons. Encouraged by our satisfactory early experience with the use of the RA conduit, we have expanded its use to more than 90% of all coronary surgery patients. The aim of the present study was to review our clinical and angiographic results when the use of the RA conduit was expanded to all patients including those aged 65 years and older and diabetics with different surgical grafting techniques. Methods: The records of 600 consecutive patients who underwent isolated CABG using the RA graft at Harefield Hospital between January 1999 and August 2002 were reviewed retrospectively. Ninety-three (15.5%) patients consented and underwent angiography before discharge at the earliest on the fourth postoperative day, aiming to look at the quality of anastomoses and the patency of the RA grafts. Results: The 600 patients had 613 RA grafts to perform 652 distal RA anastomoses. The proximal ends of 515 (84%) RA grafts were anastomosed to the aorta, 98 (16%) RA grafts were constructed as Y-grafts with 49 (8%) RA off a vein graft hood, and 49 (8%) RA grafts were constructed as T- or Y-grafts off an internal thoracic artery (ITA) graft. The proximal ends of 19 (19/294 or 6.5%) vein grafts were constructed as Y-grafts off the RA grafts. Two hundred and sixty-one (43.5%) patients were above the age of 65 years and 111 (18.5%) patients were diabetics. There were four in-hospital deaths (0.6%) among the study patients. Six (1%) patients developed forearm hematoma/seroma postoperatively. The operation time, the hospital stay, and the incidence of conduit harvest site infection for the patients who had vein grafts in addition to the RA grafts were significantly higher than those of patients who had RA grafts only. On postoperative angiography, 86 out of 93 (92.5%) RA grafts were found to be patent with good quality distal anastomoses. The maximum stenosis of the coronary arteries bypassed by the patent 86 RA grafts was 82.6 +/- 6.2%, while it was 56.3 +/- 15.4% for the coronary arteries bypassed by the occluded seven RA grafts, p < 0.001. Conclusion: The use of the RA can be expanded to all patients with different surgical grafting techniques and provides satisfactory clinical and angiographic outcomes.