Late Effects of Radial Artery Versus Saphenous Vein Grafting in Patients Aged 70 Years or Older

Background. We aimed to determine whether the reported late survival benefit of radial artery (RA) versus saphenous vein (SV) grafting in the general coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) population is maintained in elderly patients aged 70 years or older. Methods. We reviewed our 1996 to 2007 experience in 2,120 elderly patients (RA, n = 607; SV, n = 1,513) who underwent primary, nonsalvage CABG with multiple completed grafts including at least one internal thoracic artery (ITA) graft. Patients were excluded in case of single-vessel disease, bilateral ITA, ITA-only grafts, or concomitant valve/aortic surgery. Kaplan-Meier 12-year survival estimates were compared for 1-to-1 matched ITA/RA and ITA/SV cohorts based on a nonparsimonious RA use propensity model (48 variables). Results. The ITA/RA and ITA/SV cohorts (both, aged 75 +/- 4yrs and 3.5 +/- 0.8 grafts) were well matched and had identical operative mortality (2.3%; 11 of 480 each). Late survival was superior ITA/RA versus ITA/SV (p < 0.001), estimated at 85.1% versus 70.6% and 70.9% versus 50.5% for 5 and 10 years, respectively. Late survival risk ratios (95% confidence interval) for RA versus SV grafting was 0.47 (0.36 to 0.61), and the relative SV to RA death hazard was greater than 1 between 1 and 144 months. Conclusions. The late survival results suggest that elderly (>= 70 years) primary multivessel CABG patients benefit substantially when RA is used as the second conduit in combination with ITA. Indeed, compared with previously published comparisons including all age groups, the derived risk ratio indicates that the benefit for the elderly may exceed that for younger patients in the initial decade after CABG. Use of RA should not be avoided in the elderly. (Ann Thorac Surg 2012;94:1478-84) (C) 2012 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons