Multi‐arterial and total‐arterial coronary revascularization: Past, present, and future perspective

BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE STUDY: Although abundant biological, clinical, and scientific evidence exists on the superiority of multi-arterial (MAR) and total-arterial revascularization (TAR) over the conventional strategy with a single internal thoracic artery, only 10% of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in the United States receives a second arterial conduit, and only 5% of patients receives TAR. METHODS AND RESULTS: In January 2020, the authors performed comprehensive search to identify studies that evaluated MAR and TAR strategies through the MEDLINE database. CONCLUSIONS: In this paper, the authors reviewed the literature on the historical and current evidence in favor of MAR and TAR, thus underlying why current CABG practice needs qualitative improvement.