How to treat bridge vascular anastomotic lesions

Bridging vessel anastomosis is one of the most frequent sites of restenosis after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), and its treatment includes medication, re-CABG, and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Due to the difficulty of surgical operation caused by adhesions, limited available bridging vessels, patients are mostly elderly, combined with multiple diseases, perioperative and postoperative complications, mortality rate, etc., there are fewer patients with re-CABG in the international arena, and there are only case reports in China, and the effect of drug treatment to improve symptoms is not good. Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has become an important tool for the management of bridge vessel anastomotic lesions because it is favored for its low risk and high success rate. Interventional treatment of venous bridge vessel anastomotic lesions The saphenous vein (SVG), as the first vascular donor for CABG, is still widely used because of its superficial anatomical location, ease of freeing, convenience of sampling, and sufficient length for multibranch vascular lesions. However, postoperative restenosis and occlusion of the vein seriously affects the long-term patency rate, and the opening rates at 1, 5 and 10 years after surgery have been reported to be 93%, 74% and 41%, respectively. SVG lesions occurring 1 month after CABG are usually due to thrombosis or technical manipulation, manifested as bridge vessel occlusion or anastomotic stenosis, and the cause of ischemia 1-12 months after CABG is usually bridge vessel anastomotic stenosis, the distal anastomotic stenosis of bridge vessels responds better to interventional therapy, whereas the proximal anastomotic stenosis of bridge vessels and the aorta is often accompanied by dense fibrous tissue, which increases the incidence of restenosis. This increases the incidence of restenosis. At this point, the bridge vessel intervention is preferred, while 1 year after the procedure, depending on the situation, the principle is to try to perform in situ vascular PCI. SVG anastomotic lesions include aortic opening lesions and distal anastomotic lesions. Brilakis et al. analyzed 91,355 patients who underwent SVG bridge vessel interventions and found that the proximal anastomotic lesions accounted for 20.3% of the patients, and distal anastomotic lesions accounted for 16.2%. 16.2%. 1, SVG aortic opening lesions Abdel-Meguid et al. performed PTCA or rotational resection in 68 patients with venous bridge vessel opening lesions, and showed that the success rate of the procedure was 89.7%, and after an average follow-up of 23± 17 months, major adverse events (including death, myocardial infarction, hemodialysis, or hospitalization for cardiac disease), and the development of angina pectoris were observed, with 10 of the patients having a myocardial infarction, and target revascularization in 19 patients.Stephan et al. showed that directed spinodal dissection for the treatment of SVG venous bridge vessel opening lesions has a high surgical success rate, low complications, but a high incidence of restenosis. Directed rotational milling is indicated for patients with severely calcified, angulated opening lesions. Excimer laser treatment of 206 patients with patent lesions has also been reported, with a 90% procedural success rate, 4% major complications during hospitalization, 75% no major adverse cardiovascular events at 6-month follow-up, and an overall restenosis incidence (51% of patients with angiographic follow-up) of 39%, with 35% of SVG bridge vessel patent lesions. These studies suggest that traditional balloon dilatation, excimer laser, and rotational milling for SVG opening lesions are associated with high rates of surgical complications and restenosis, and poor outcomes, which may be related to elastic retraction after balloon dilatation and heavy plaque loading of the opening lesions, while stenting, which has been shown to have a high rate of surgical success and a low level of complications, is currently the preferred method of stenting for the treatment of these lesions. Some studies have shown that PTCA can be used for the treatment of SVG distal anastomotic lesions, which have a high incidence of restenosis but lower than that of proximal anastomosis or bridge vessel body, but the reasons for restenosis include technical aspects (selection of vessels, surgical procedure), fibrous intima-media proliferation of the anastomosis, and degradation of atherosclerotic plaques. Interventional treatment of anastomotic lesions in arterial bridge vessels Internal mammary artery (IMA), radial artery, right gastric omental artery, splenic artery and inferior abdominal wall artery are optional CABG graft arteries and vessels. IMA can maintain a better endothelium so as to minimize the local proliferation and atherosclerosis, and it can maintain the maximum mechanism of producing vasodilatation and antiplatelet aggregation of prostacyclin, which can maintain the patency rate of 95% in 10 years. The 10-year patency rate of prostacyclin is maintained at 95%, and the incidence of atherosclerosis is only 4%, which is much lower than that of the saphenous vein (26%). The IMA can be used both tipped and free, and it can be used bilaterally, and the bypass of the left anterior descending branch of the IMA has demonstrated its superiority, and is therefore the most commonly used, with anastomotic stenosis being the most common site of restenosis, and the management of the anastomotic lesions being of utmost importance. The choice of PCI route for internal mammary artery anastomotic lesions should be based on the patient’s specific situation.Hung et al. included 13 patients with anastomotic stenosis, 6 patients via femoral artery, while 7 patients via radial artery were successfully treated with PCI, suggesting that it is safe to perform LIMA bridge vascular intervention via radial and femoral arteries. In conclusion, with the continuous promotion and application of CABG in China, the number of patients re-visiting the clinic due to stenosis or occlusion of arteriovenous bridges will increase, and the mechanism is complex, which may be the result of a multifactorial effect. Therefore, a single therapeutic measure is ineffective, and an appropriate PCI strategy should be adopted for the different bridge vessels, especially for the anastomotic lesion characteristics. Improvement of lifestyle and rational drug therapy can maximize the benefit to patients.