[The potential of anastomosis of the gastroepiploic artery to the left anterior descending artery in coronary artery bypass grafting].
It would be a great contribution in coronary artery bypass grafting (CAGB) using arterial graft (AG) if right gastroepiploic artery (GEA) could be grafted onto left anterior descending artery (LAD) in situ. In this study, we discussed 22 cases where anastomosis of GEA to LAD was made in situ. The subjects were limited to high stenotic cases of > 90% stenosis or more > 75% stenoses recognized in the proximal segment of coronary artery from the anastomosed site. The sex ratio of 18 (male): 4 (female) and the age varied from 40 to 78 years (the mean age: 58 years). The details were 2 cases of single CABG, 6 cases of double CABG, 11 cases of triple CABG and 3 cases of quadruple CABG and 22 GEA's were anastomosed onto 32 vessels. There was no operative death. Postoperative angiography performed on the 21 cases showed the patency of 95.2% (20/21). These finding indicate that the use of GEA is effective for multivessel CABGs in LAD.