The Dresden approach for complete multivessel revascularization

Background. In a prospective clinical trial, a group of patients receiving less invasive surgical procedure, including minithoracotomy in combination with cardiopulmonary bypass (group 1), was compared to a group of patients receiving conventional bypass surgery (group 2) for the treatment of corona ry artery disease. Methods. Group 1 included 85 patients (71 men, 14 women, aged 39 to 82 year s, median 61.1 +/- 9.0 years); group 2 included 53 patients (38 men, 15 wom en, aged 51 to 79 years, median 62.0 +/- 6.1 years). Results. There were no perioperative deaths in the whole series of patients . Time of operation was 256 +/- 43 minutes in group 1 and 150.0 +/- 53.6 mi nutes in group 2. Hospitalization was 6.0 +/- 1.4 days and intensive care u nit stay 1 day for both groups. Back pain assessment on postoperative day 3 showed less pain in group 1. Three-month follow-up revealed ischemia in st ress electrocardiogram in 2 patients (2.5%) in group 1 and in 2 patients (4 .1%) in group 2. Coronary angiograms confirmed the stress-electrocardiogram findings. Conclusions. Surgical results are equal for both techniques. Even though ti me of operation is longer in patients receiving less invasive procedures, i ntensive care unit stay and hospital stays are the same length. Early posto perative back pain is less in group 1 and combined with faster convalescenc e. (C) 1999 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons.