title: Routine use of the radial artery for coronary artery revascularization.
abstract: Between January 1997 and December 2000, a total of 4,000 patients underwent myocardial revascularization using the radial artery as one of the conduits. The mean age of the patients was 54 +/- 7 years, and 92.8% of them were male. Of these patients, 31% had a left ventricular ejection fraction below 40% and 22.8% underwent urgent operation. A total of 4,225 distal anastomoses were performed using the radial artery. The average number of grafts was 3.3 +/- 0.5. The hospital mortality rate was 0.8%. Low cardiac output, inotropic support, perioperative myocardial infarction, reoperation for bleeding, atrial fibrillation, and sternal infection occurred in 1.8%, 2.8%, 1.2%, 1.2%, 16.8%, and 1.2% of the patients, respectively. None of the patients had major ischemia of the hand. The incidence of local hand wound complications was 0.7% (wound infection, 0.4%; wound dehiscence without infection, 0.1%; and hematoma, 0.2%). The average length of stay in the intensive care unit was 20 +/- 7 hours and in the hospital was 6 +/- 2 days. Postoperative angiography, performed in 106 patients at a mean interval of 18 months, showed that 92.4% of radial artery, 96.2% of internal mammary artery, and 76.2% of saphenous vein grafts were patent.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre, New Delhi, India. meharval@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Zile Singh
authors.initials: ZS
authors.lastname: Meharwal
authors.forename: Naresh
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Trehan
mesh_terms: D000714:Anastomosis, Surgical; D002315:Cardiopulmonary Bypass; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009204:Myocardial Revascularization / Q000379:methods*; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D017534:Radial Artery / Q000637:transplantation*; D016896:Treatment Outcome