Angiographic Changes in Internal Mammary Artery and Saphenous Vein Grafts, Two Weeks, One Year and Five Years after Coronary Bypass Surgery

Coronary angiography was performed two weeks after coronary bypass surgery on 112/121 consecutive operative survivors (93%), on 97/119 one-year survivors (82%) and on 79/108 five-year survivors (73%). Occlusions of the grafts were uncommon after the first year. The cumulative five-year patency, calculated with the actuarial method, was 89% for internal mammary artery (IMA) grafts and 77% for aortocoronary saphenous vein (SV) grafts. Almost 70% of the SV grafts exhibited a 15-50% reduced diameter after one year and 10% showed progressive narrowing at five years. Diffuse luminal narrowing did not predict graft failure. The incidence of localized narrowings present at two weeks after surgery was, however, significantly higher among SV grafts, which occluded within one year, than among those patent after five years. In 5% of the IMA grafts the diameter was reduced 15-80% after five years. This was related either to obstruction at the anastomotic site or to low-grade proximal coronary stenosis. No less than 12% of the IMA grafts increased 20-50% in diameter as an adaptation to good distal runoff.