Abdominal surgery following coronary artery bypass grafting using an in situ right gastroepiploic artery graft.
OBJECTIVE
The usefulness of the gastroepiploic artery (GEA) as arterial grafts in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) has been studied extensively. We report our experience performing abdominal surgery after CABG using in-situ GEA.


METHODS
The subjects were eight patients who underwent abdominal surgery after CABG with an in situ GEA graft. The surgical indications were malignant tumors in five patients, an infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm in two patients and a diaphragmatic hernia in one patient. The interval from the CABG to the abdominal surgery ranged from 3 to 19 months.


RESULTS
Operations included distal gastrectomy in two cases, total gastrectomy in one case, local excision of the stomach in one case, and excision of the transverse colon in one case. Aorto-biiliac artery bypass was performed in two cases, and the diaphragmatic hernia was reconstructed using standard techniques. When the skeletonization method has been used to harvest the GEA, GEA grafts were easily identified during a laparotomy, and the abdominal procedure was performed using routine methods. One patient died of cancer, and the other patients are alive 1 year 2 months to 4 years 5 months after surgery. No patient reported recurrence of angina.


CONCLUSIONS
The risk of abdominal reoperations should be considered when using the in situ right GEA for CABG. We recommend the skeletonization method for GEA harvest to decrease the difficulty during second abdominal operations.
Kotoh
Keiju
K
Department of Surgery, Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Toyama, Japan.
Fukahara
Kazuaki
K
Tsuda
Motoharu
M
Tukada
Kazuhiro
K
Misaki
Takuro
T
D000368:Aged; D000787:Angina Pectoris / Q000209:etiology*; D017544:Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal / Q000601:surgery; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D024405:Gastroepiploic Artery / Q000637:transplantation*; D006083:Graft Occlusion, Vascular / Q000209:etiology*; D006548:Hernia, Diaphragmatic / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D007813:Laparotomy / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery; D016896:Treatment Outcome