Internal-Thoracic-Artery Grafts — Biologically Better Coronary Arteries

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Abstract
The development of internal-thoracic-artery grafting is the most remarkable achievement in coronary-artery surgery. In the past two decades, numerous studies have confirmed that the patency rate of internal-thoracic-artery grafts is excellent and that they result in an improvement in survival of 10 to 30 percent and greater freedom from major cardiac events, as compared with the rates in patients whose bypass surgery was performed with vein grafts only. What the early proponents of the internal-thoracic-artery bypass graft did not realize is that an important feature of this arterial conduit is relative immunity from atherosclerosis, a characteristic not found in either . . .