Current Trends in Bilateral Internal Mammary Artery Use for Coronary Revascularization: Extending Benefit to High-Risk Patients
The Mayo Clinic team retrospectively reviewed their experience with isolated CABG for multivessel coronary artery disease over a 15-year period to assess usage of bilateral internal mammary arteries (BIMA) and selected outcomes. The population included a total of 6468 isolated CABG procedures.
Some of the salient findings from their study are:
- The use of BIMA doubled over the most recent 4-year period (13% to 27%).
- Propensity-matched patients exhibited a survival advantage for BIMA patients, with a hazard ratio of 0.81.
- Sternal infection was not significantly higher in the BIMA group.
The authors conclude that BIMA use should be encouraged and expanded.
Thanks for a very clear and concise summary of this nice study. Impressive to see BIMA use go from 13% to 27%, while STS database data still tells us overall BIMA use remains below 10%.