Excellent long-term clinical outcome after coronary artery bypass surgery using three pedicled arterial grafts in patients with three-vessel disease

Background. Long-term clinical outcome of complete arterial grafting in three-vessel disease is unknown.Methods. We studied 344 patients who underwent complete arterial revascularization using the internal thoracic arteries and the right gastroepiploic artery. Freedom from major adverse cardiac events (MACE) was evaluated by the Kaplan-Meier method, and homogeneity of outcome in strata of patients was assessed using Cox proportional hazards modeling.Results. Median follow-up of survivors was 9.3 years (range, 0.01 to 12.8 years). The 12-year freedom from MACE was 75.5%. For the composite of MACE, this was 86.9% for cardiovascular death, 93.3% for myocardial infarction, and 89.4% for reintervention. In patients aged older than 65 years, MACE occurred significantly more frequent, with a freedom from MACE of 65.8% compared with 82.6% in younger patients (hazard ratio, 3.4; 95% confidence interval, 2.1 to 5.6, p <0.001).Conclusions. Complete arterial revascularization using both pedicled internal thoracic arteries and the gastroepiploic artery in patients with three-vessel disease resulted in an excellent long-term clinical outcome, especially in patients aged younger than 65 years.