Coronary Bypass Graft Stenosis

Robotic surgery is one of the most popular minimally invasive procedures for patients with coronary artery disease or valvular diseases. Studies have shown that, as compared to conventional sternotomy, patients underwent robot-assisted bypass grafting or valvuloplasty had less post-operation pain, blood transfusion volume during operation, re-operation rate, post-operation stroke rate and length of hospitalization. However, most studies focused on the comparison of complications of different procedures, and the investigation of cardiopulmonary function recovery is still lacking. Thus our study is to compare the functional outcomes between patients that undergo different surgical procedures.

Transit-time flowmetry (TTFM) allows grafts quality control during coronary artery bypass surgery by measuring the flow volume through them. To date, many studies have deeply studied the predictive role on the graft outcomes of the various flowmetry-derived parameters. One of the least investigated aspects, however, is the mutual influence that two newly realized grafts can have. This possibility would be related to the presence of a more or less developed collateral circulation between the bypassed territories. The purpose of this study is to assess whether a graft for a territory different than that provided by the left anterior descending artery (LAD) may affect the functionality (measured through flowmetry) of the left internal mammary artery - LAD graft.