Prophylactic Left Internal Mammary Artery Graft In Mildly-Stenosed Coronary Lesions. Still An Open Discussion

Introduction

The main advantages of CABG with the left internal mammary artery (LIMA) have been well established since the 80s and can be enumerated as follows.

It has been well established that coronary venous grafts in arteries with moderate atherosclerotic lesions (<70%) had early occlusion mainly due to flow competition with the native coronary circulation. Otherwise, to graft a moderately stenosed coronary vessel with LIMA remains debatable, keeping the question by Hayward and colleagues open: "Should all moderate coronary lesions be grafted during primary coronary bypass surgery?". However, controversy exists whether LIMAs should be used to bypass coronary arteries with noncritical stenoses.

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