Stent Placement Compared with Balloon Angioplasty for Obstructed Coronary Bypass Grafts

• Published in: The New England journal of medicine Vol. 337; no. 11; pp. 740 - 747
• Main Authors: Savage, Michael P, Douglas, John S, Fischman, David L, Pepine, Carl J, King, Spencer B, Werner, Jeffrey A, Bailey, Steven R, Overlie, Paul A, Fenton, Sarah H, Brinker, Jeffrey A, Leon, Martin B, Goldberg, Sheldon, Heuser, Richard, Smalling, Richard, Safian, Robert D, Cleman, Michael, Buchbinder, Maurice, Snead, David, Rake, Randal C, Gebhardt, Sharon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston, MA Massachusetts Medical Society 11-09-1997
• Subjects: Angioplasty; Biological and medical sciences; Cardiovascular disease; Medical procedures; Medical research; Medical sciences; Surgery (general aspects). Transplantations, organ and tissue grafts. Graft diseases; Surgery of the heart; Human; Evaluation; Instrumentation therapy; Stenosis; Cardiovascular disease; Balloon; Coronary heart disease; Stent; Plasty; Bypass; Heart disease; Surgery; Comparative study
• ISSN: 0028-4793; 1533-4406
• DOI: 10.1056/NEJM199709113371103

The treatment of patients with obstructive disease of coronary-artery bypass grafts poses a challenge of increasing magnitude as the population of patients who have undergone bypass surgery continues to grow. Within a decade after surgery, half of all saphenous-vein bypass grafts have severe atherosclerotic disease.
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Management of graft disease is problematic, since repeated surgery entails substantial risk and the results of conventional angioplasty have been disappointing.
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As compared with angioplasty in native coronary arteries, balloon dilation of vein grafts is associated with increased rates of procedural complications and restenosis.
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Previous randomized trials of stent implantation, as compared . . .