No doctor will want any disease to progress in their patients. But, coronary revascularization is an enigma. Cardiologists take every step to regress the atherosclerotic process and be meticulous in maintaining antegrade flow across the left main and proximal LAD or LCX. They double up their caution after PCI in left main or proximal segments.
Meanwhile, our cardiac surgeons do enjoy a unique liberty. In fact it is a luxury, i.e., they can afford to forget the status of proximal disease. What they want is the patency of the graft, integrity of the anastomotic site, and distal vessel status. Atherosclerosis being essentially a proximal disease, surgeons have all the more reason to be blessed. Of course, it should have been disciplined well-done CABG.
Do they ever wish for proximal vessel disease progression ?
What a non-sensical question, dude ?. Don’t get shocked. I was told, many of surgeons would, indeed be happy with that, as it tends to divert more flow to the graft, and long term patency is better. There are many instances when they close the antegrade flow, if it is interfering with graft flow during the surgery itself. .
Final message
Cardiologists strive hard to heal at ground zero where vessels are traumatized. Worrying day in and day out, after putting a scaffold. Surgeons simply fly over it, laughing at the lesions. So, what is the lesson from this post? When making critical decisions on coronary revascularization, think twice .Make a learned decision for every given patient.
Counterpoint
Native vessel progression do have adverse outcomes even after CABG, provided it occurs in the non by-passed vessel or when it occurs distal to the bypass circuit. Please ,don’t take a wrong message that progression of atherosclerosis is welcome post CABG. Every post-CABG patient should follow the same OMT and lifestyle modifications to reduce the burden of atherosclerosis in a larger sense. What this article refers to, is mainly about the influence of disproportionately high antegrade flow on graft survival. Surgeons do prescribe statin after CABG routinely , not withstanding the results of ACTIVE study (Ref 2) which showed high Intensity statin following CABG, had little influence on graft patency.
Reference
Dr.S.Venkatesan MD 