Bilateral and unilateral use of internal thoracic artery for myocardial revascularization. Comparison of extubation outcome and duration of hospital stay.

The left internal thoracic artery is usually used as arterial conduit for myocardial revascularization; however, there is an increasing popularity of bilateral use of this artery for grafting. We examined 180 patients with both types of arterial conduits to answer whether bilateral use of the internal thoracic artery makes the difference in postoperative extubation outcome and duration of hospital stay in comparison to the unilateral use of this conduit. Ninety-three patients with bilateral conduit and 87 patients with unilateral conduit, with comparable age, cardiopulmonary bypass, and aortic cross-clamp time have been studied. On the basis of statistical and retrospective analysis, we conclude that bilateral use of internal thoracic artery for myocardial revascularization prolongs required postoperative respiratory support (12.0 h against 7.6 h) not affecting the duration of the mean hospital stay.