title: The Choice of Conduits in Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery.
abstract: Coronary artery bypass grafting is the most common cardiac surgery operation performed worldwide. It is the most effective revascularization method for several categories of patients affected by coronary artery disease. Although coronary artery bypass grafting has been performed for more than 40 years, no detailed guidelines on the choice of coronary artery bypass grafting conduits have been published and the choice of the revascularization strategy remains more a matter of art than of science. Moreover, there is a clear contradiction between the proven benefits of arterial grafting and its very limited use in everyday clinical practice. In the hope of encouraging wider diffusion of arterial revascularization and to provide a guide for clinicians, we discuss current evidence for the use of different conduits in coronary artery bypass surgery and propose an evidence-based algorithm for the choice of the second conduit during coronary artery bypass operations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York; Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, Catholic University, Rome, Italy. Electronic address: mfg9004@med.cornell.edu.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gaudino
authors.affiliation: University of Oxford, Department of Cardiac Surgery, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Taggart
authors.affiliation: Suma Heart Clinic, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Hisayoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Suma
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.
authors.forename: John D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Puskas
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, Catholic University, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Filippo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Crea
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, Catholic University, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Massetti
mesh_terms: D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass / Q000379:methods*; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000601:surgery*; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D012501:Saphenous Vein / Q000637:transplantation*
keywords: algorithms; arterial conduits; cardiac surgical procedures; coronary artery disease; saphenous vein