The Growth Potential and Patency of Free Right Internal Thoracic Arteries Verified by Computed Tomography Angiography

Reply: Can you really turn a vein into an artery?

“…5 The choice of right internal mammary artery as the second arterial graft is often obvious for anatomical reasons and its excellent patency rates (96.9%), even if it is used as a free graft. 6 In a recent study of 1325 patients who received in situ bilateral internal thoracic artery grafts to left coronary bed as a part of total arterial revascularization, the rate of graft failure after 18 years of follow-up was 1.6% for LITA, 2.9% for right internal mammary artery, and as high as 20.7% for the radial artery, which was used as a free graft to the right coronary bed. 7 Hwang and colleagues 8 reported that the use of SVG as a part of composite graft (SVG off the LITA) confers similar results as the use of multiple arterial grafts.…”