• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.307-314
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• 1992

The internal mammary artery has been advocated for use in bypass grafting owing to its superior long-term patency when compared to saphenous vein grafts. Concern exists that the flow through internal mammary artery may be inadequate during periods of peak myocardial demand when the internal mammary artery graft was used for proximal left anterior descending artery stenosis. This flow adequacy was investigated in 13 consecutive patients with a mean proximal left anterior descending artery stenosis of 84.2% who were selected for coronary bypass using internal mammary artery. We checked flow and diameter of left internal mammary artery without intraluminal dilatation just before anastomosis to left anterior descending artery during cardiopulmonary bypass. Clinical results were evaluated postoperatively with clinical symptoms, echocardiographies, stress tests, and coronary angiographies. The mean internal mammary artery flow measured just before anastomosis was 38ml/ min[range of 20 to 80ml /min] and its mean internal diameter 1.4mm. Maximal workload was improved from preoperative value of 6.3$\pm$2.5METS to postoperative value of 9.1$\pm$1.4 METS in 9 patients who Paired-test can be used. Cardiac symptoms recurred in two patients after bypass surgery, but they were not related to left internal mammary artery grafts. All patients were discharged in postoperatively 9.3 days[range of 7 to 20 days] after operation without mortality. Thus, on the basis of these findings, the internal mammary artery is a reasonable graft that we can routinely use for proximal left descending artery stenosis if internal diameter of the internal mammary artery is more than 1.0mm and its flow is more than 20ml /min at mean arterial pressure of 50 to 60mmHg during cardiopulmonary bypass.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.842-849
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• 1988

Between July, 1987, and September, 1988, 6 patients with coronary occlusive disease received coronary artery bypass surgery at Kyungpook University Hospital. There were five males and one female whose age ranged from 39 to 64 years[mean 54*8.0 years]. Of the 6 patients, 5 suffered from unstable angina, 1 suffered from stable angina. Selective coronary angiography revealed a significant stenosis of the left anterior descending artery in 6 cases, of its diagonal branch in 1 case, of the right coronary artery in 1 case, the circumflex artery in 1 case, and of its obtuse marginal branch in 1 case. The mode of anastomosis were single saphenous vein graft in 3 cases, single left internal mammary artery graft in 1 case, double saphenous vein graft with sequential anastomosis in 1 case, and left internal mammary artery plus saphenous vein graft in 1 case. Of these, 6 grafts to left anterior descending artery were done. There was no operative death, but perioperative myocardial infarction was happened in 1 case. All survivors were free of angina and discontinuing medical therapy during the follow up period[mean 7.8*5.15 months].

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.167-172
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• 2000

Background: As the internal mammary artery is far superior to the vein in the patency rate recently there has been a tendency to use the arterial graft as much as possible in coronary artery bypass grafts with the expectation of better the short- and long-term patency rate. Material and Method: We sequentially grafted the diagonal and the left anterior descending artery significantly influencing the cardiac function with the internal mammary artery. There were 32 cases of sequential grafts from July 1993 to December 1998: 21 men and 11 women. The age range was from 43 to 69 years with a mean age of 56.64$\pm$6.41 years. There were 22 unstable angina 7 stable angina and 3 acute myocardial infarction. 8 cases of them were accompanied by stenosis of the left main coronary artery. The grafts for coronary artery bypass surgery included the great saphenous vein at 60 the right gastroepiploci artery at 5 and the left internal mammary artery at 64 coronary arteries. Result: One patient died from sepsis and multiorgan failure. Complications included wound infections in two cases and gastrointestinal bleeding in one patient. All patients showed decrease or disappearance of angina after operation. The postoperative coronary angiogram performed in 9 patients showed neither occlusion nor stenosis of the grafts. Conclusion: This study suggests that sequential anastomosis of the internal mammary artery to the diagonal and the left anterior descending artery may result in excellent short-term patency diagonal and the left anterior descending artery may result in excellent short-term patency rate and be useful for the coronary artery bypass graft using only arterial grafts

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.671-677
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• 1995

Skeletonization of the internal mammary artery [IMA during myocardial revascularization procedures may provide some advantages, compared with the pedicle graft of the artery. In 17 patients undergoing IMA grafting by skeletonization technique, flow through the artery was measured on mean arterial pressure of 50-55 mmHg immediately after cardiopulmonary bypass started [first flow and just before its anastomosis to left anterior descending artery [second flow . In 16 patients except 1 patient whose graft was injured during mobilization, the first flow of IMA graft was 32.3 $\pm$ 7.4 ml/min and the second flow increased to 59.6$\pm$25.9 ml/min without any treatment and the site for anastomosis of the IMA graft was more than 1.0 cm above the bifurcation. On the basis of previous clinical studies, the flow of the skeletonized IMA was greater than that of the pedicle graft [59.6 $\pm$ 25.9 ml/min versus 37.7$\pm$ 14.1 ml/min, p < 0.05 . In comparison between the skeletonized IMA and the IMA graft intraluminally dilated with papaverine solution, there was no significant difference between two flows[59.6 $\pm$25.7 ml/min versus 74.7 $\pm$31.4 ml/min, not significant , but the former showed longer graft and anastomosis of more proximal portion of the graft to left anterior descending artery. In conclusion, the technique of internal mammary artery skeletonization has consistently produced a satifactory conduit for myocardial revascularization procedures. We have adopted IMA skeletonization not only because of the flow, diameter, and vessel length obtained but also because of limited perivascular tissue disruption that occurs during the dissection.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.29 no.11
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• pp.1263-1266
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• 1996

We have experienced a case of coronary artery bypass surgery without extracorporeal circulation through limited anterior thoracotomy. The lesion was a single vessel disease involving the take off of the left anterior descending artery(LAD) which showed tubular lesion with irregular contour and eccentric stenosis of more than 95% luminal narrowing. Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty(PTCA) seemed to have moderate success rate and moderate complication rate. A segment of left internal mammary artery(LIMA) from the second rib down to the sixth rib was harvested through the bed of resected fourth costal cartilage. Anastomosis between LIMA and LAD was performed under beating condition. The patient was extubated in the operation room and showed excellent postoperative course without complications. The coronary angiography on the postoperative 7th day revealed good patency at the anastomosis site.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.1369-1375
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• 1992

During a 17-month period 32 consecutive patients underwent coronary artery bypass graft. The mean age of these patients was 45.3 years [range 39 to 71 years]. There were 18 men and 14 women. Preoperatively 11 patients had stable angina pectoris and 12 patients of unstable angina pectoris. 28% [9 patients] had of myocardial infarction history. The patterns of disease were single vessel involvement [4 casis], double vessel involvement [11 cases], triple vessel involvement [12 caese] and 5 cases of left main coronary artery disease. Thirty-seven percent [12/32] were in New York Heart Association class IV. Myocardial revascularization was performed under emergency conditions in 3 patients. We performed 13 case of double anastomosis, 12 case of triple anastomosis and 4 case of 4 anstomosis [mean 2.59 anastomosis per patient]. The left internal mammary artery was used in 68.7%. 90% of the patients receieved two or more grafts. Complications occurred in 8 patients [25%]. All patients were followed up for a mean of 8.6 months [2 to 17 months]. There was no hospital and late death. Postoperatively 87% were in New York Heart Association class I or II and 96% of the patient were free from angina.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.1092-1100
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• 1989

Since May 1987 to April 1989, fifteen patients have been subjected to coronary artery bypass graft [CABG] including coronary thromboendarterectomy in 3 patients at Hanyang University Hospital. The correlation between the preoperative coronary angiography, electrocardiography, clinical status, operative finding and postoperative blood flow, complication and degree of clinical improvement were evaluated. 1. Ten patients [67 %] were male and five patients [33 %] were female, Ages ranged from 30 to 68 years. [average 52.2 years] 2. The angina by types of presentation was stable in 3 patients, unstable in 12 patients with resting, postinfarction and progressive angina as the criteria of unstability. 3. The number of involved vessels were single in 6 cases, double in 4 cases, triple in 5 cases including 1 case of left main coronary arterial disease. 4. The distribution of sites of distal anastomosis revealed predilection to left coronary arterial system [83 %], especially left anterior descending arterial system. 5. The author performed 4 cases of single bypass, 4 cases of double bypass, 5 cases of triple bypass and 2 cases of quadruple bypass. Of these 15 patients, 3 patients received coronary thromboendarterectomy, LAD in 2 patients and right coronary artery [RCA] in 1 patient. 6. The distal anastomosis were performed first with using saphenous vein grafts as conduits in all cases except 1 case using Gore-Tex conduit because of deficient in length and narrowed internal mammary artery and sequential bypass methods were employed in last 6 cases. 7. One operative death occurred and therefore, mortality rate was 6.7%. The perioperative myocardial infarction were occurred in 3 cases [20%] and its cause was supposed that they were triple vessel disease and therefore, aortic cross clamping times were relatively long. 8. All survivors were followed for 17.7 months on an average [range 5-28 months] and they have had symptomatic improvement except 1 case having mild degree of angina at 1.5 months after operation.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.36 no.10
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• pp.728-733
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• 2003

Background: The aim of the current study was to assess the effects of total arterial myocardial revascularization (TAMR) with bilateral internal mammary arteries. Material and Method: 139 consecutive patients who underwent off pump coronary artery bypass surgery from January 2000 to December 2001 were included in the current retrospective study. Patients were divided into those receiving bilateral internal mammary artery, BITA (n=85) and those receiving single internal mammary artery, SITA (n=54). Result: There was only one death in each group. No significant differences were noted in the total ICU and hospital stay; 2.4$\pm$1.7 and 11.2$\pm$17.7 days, in the BITA group, respectively and 2.8$\pm$2.7 and 9.7$\pm$7.1 days in the SITA group, respectively (P>0.05). The mean number of distal anastomosis of 3.9$\pm$0.7 was slightly higher in the SITA group compared to the SITA group, which was 3.1$\pm$0.8. Myocardial infarction occurred in 7 patients (BITA group: 2, SITA group: 5) and deep sternal infection necessitating reoperation occurred in 4 patients (BITA group: 3, SITA group: 1). Coronary angiogram was performed in the immediate postoperative period in 104 patients (BITA group: 64/85, SITA group: 40/54). Of these patients, stenosis in the LAD anastomosis site occurred in 4 patients (BITA group: 2, SITA group: 2). A total of 8 anastomotic sites were stenotic in the entire series of which percutaneous intervention was performed in 3 patients and none required reoperative coronary artery bypass. Conclusion: The results of the current data did not show a significant difference in patiency rate with bilateral internal mammary artery use for CABG supporting the feasibility of its use as a viable alternative method for TAMR.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.453-463
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• 1995

During 42 month period 91 consecutive patient underwent coronary artery bypass surgery. The mean age of these patient was 57 years [range from 28 to 78 years . There were 57 men and 34 women. The preoperative risk factors that include beyond the 50 % of total patients were male sex, obesity, hypo-high-density lipoproteinemia, smoking, hypercholesterolemia, hyper-low-density lipoproteinemia, hypertriglyceridemia and hypertension. Preoperatively 27 patients had stable angina pectoris and 39 patients of unstable angina pectoris. Twenty five patients had previous myocardial infarction history. The patterns of disease were 8 patients of single vessel involvement, 18 patients of double vessel involvement, 54 patients of triple vessel involvement and 11 patients of left main coronary artery disease. Fifty five patients were in Canadian Cardiovascular Society functional class III. Myocardial revascularization was performed under emergency conditions in 5 patients. Nine percent of patients had previous PTCA history. We performed 16 cases of sequential anastomosis, internal mammary artery harvest in 86 percent of total patients and total 284 distal anastomoses[mean 3.1 anastomosis per patient . The mean ACC time was 60.5 minutes and ECC time was mean 110 minutes. The combined surgeries were 16 cases of endarterectomy, 2 cases of LV aneurysmectomy, 1 case of Bentall operation, 1 case of repair of sinus of Valsalva, 1 case of ligation of coronary AV fistula and 1 case of excision of breast mass. The most common complication was wound infection[12 cases, 13 % . There was one hospital death due to postoperative respiratory failure and low output syndrome in patient with postinfarction VSD, LV aneurysm. Postoperative 88 patients were in Functional class I or II. The 99mTc-MIBI myocardial perfusion scan that used as evaluation of postoperative state was well correlated with patient`s symptoms instead of some disadvantages.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.606-617
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• 1986

During the period from November 1981 through June 1986, 18 cases of coronary arterial bypass graft were performed at Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Seoul National University Hospital. They consisted of 13 males and 5 females with the mean age of 49 [range: 28-69 years]. History of myocardial infarction was noted in 50% of the patients and cardiomegaly on chest PA in 2 patients with preserved LV function. On resting EKG, except the evidences of old myocardial infarction, the findings of LVH were noted in 7 cases, acute myocardial infarction in 2, diffuse myocardial ischemia in 1, and significant ventricular arrhythmia in 2 cases. The angina by type of presentation is stable in 3 patients, unstable in 15 patients with resting, postinfarction and progressive angina as the criteria of unstability. The patterns of involvement of significant disease were single vessel involvement [5 cases] double vessel involvement [8 cases], and triple vessel involvement [5 cases] including 5 cases of left main coronary arterial diseases. The pattern of coronary arterial disease in individual patient was one or more stenosis of the proximal left coronary arterial system with or without right coronary involvement, in every case. We performed 9 cases of double bypass and 9 cases of triple bypass with great saphenous vein using single anastomosis technique except in 4 cases, One of the 4 cases is our first case, sequential anastomosis between LAD and diagonal was performed due to shortage of the prepared vein graft. In the other 3 cases, our latest experience, we adopted the left internal mammary artery for the left anterior descending coronary revascularization. The distribution of sites of distal anastomosis revealed more striking predilection to LAD, showing our attention on the significance of the revascularization of LAD system. The ischemic time was 35 minutes per graft and mean number of grafts per patient was 2.5. Of the 18 patients, 13 [77.2%] had complete revascularization, and incomplete in 5 cases with the causes of incompleteness as presented. The early results of operation were as followed: surgical death in 2 [11%], perioperative infarction 2 [11%], need of inotropic support 5 [28%], arrhythmia 2 [11%], wound problem, bleeding, and emotional dysfunction. The actuarial anginal free survival during the period of 6 months through 2 years was 85.2% with excellent symptomatic control according to the angina classification of Canadian Cardiovascular Society.