Coronary artery bypass with freeze-preserved saphenous vein allografts.
Over the past 5 years, 13 patients had coronary artery bypass performed with freeze-preserved saphenous vein allografts. There were no operative deaths or significant morbidity. Six patients were studied postoperatively at 42, 37, 10, 7, 5, and 1 months. Six of 8 grafts were patent with good flow. There were four late deaths; two of these occurred in patients who had concomitant resection of a ventricular aneurysm. Of the 9 surviving patients, 6 (6/9) are asymptomatic and 2 (2/9) have occasional chest pains; the condition of 1 patient (1/9) is unchanged. This experience suggests that free-preserved saphenous vein allografts may be used successfully for coronary bypass when autologous veins and internal mammary arteries are unavailable or insufficient for multiple bypass.
D000368:Aged; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass / Q000379:methods*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005612:Freeze Drying; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012501:Saphenous Vein; D014021:Tissue Preservation / Q000379:methods; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous; D014680:Veins / Q000637:transplantation*