FRIDAY, June 24, 2005 (HealthDay News) -- In patients with multiple blocked arteries, restoring blood flow to all areas of the heart improves five-year survival, researchers report.
A team of experts at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, reviewed 1,034 patient cases and concluded that those who have complete revascularization -- the grafting of arteries to restore blood flow to all the affected areas of the heart -- have better long-term survival rates than patients who have incomplete revascularization.
"Our study centered on the various factors that make for the most successful coronary artery bypass operation, and we were looking not only at in-hospital survival by five-year survival," study leader and cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Wen Cheng said in a prepared statement.
"Although most survival studies are based on immediate outcomes, this is not the whole picture," he added. "We should be emphasizing long-term survival. What are the results going to be after five years or more? Is the patient going to need another intervention? And the most important thing: is the patient going to be alive?"
Cheng and his colleagues also said that when doing complete revascularization, surgeons should use transplanted arteries, not veins, to restore blood flow throughout the heart.
"It is much easier to harvest and work with veins, but, unfortunately, veins do not last forever. Arteries are naturally better able to carry blood under arterial pressure than veins, and while arterial grafting is technically more difficult to accomplish, requiring a higher level of skill, it was the best choice for our patients," Cheng said.
The findings appear in the current issue of the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.
More information
The American Medical Association has information about coronary artery bypass surgery.
