Off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting in Japan

The number of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) procedures has reached more than 20,000 per year in Japan, and the operative mortality rate has decreased to less than 1.5% including emergent surgery. The mortality and morbidity rates of CABG are still high in patients with risk factors such as cerebrovascular disease, chronic renal failure on hemodialysis, atheromatous and calcified ascending aorta, and older age when cardiopulmonary bypass is used. Minimally invasive direct coronary bypass on a beating heart through a small left lateral anterior thoracotomy, in which the left internal thoracic artery (LITA) is used to revascularize the left anterior descending artery, was introduced for high-risk patients with single-vessel disease in the mid-1990s, although is not widely performed at present. Since the late 1990s off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (OPCAB) has been widely performed as a treatment for multivessel disease through a median sternotomy with the evolution of stabilizers and apical suction devices, refined anesthetic management, and sophisticated surgical techniques. In 2004, 60% of all CABG procedures in Japan were performed without cardiopulmonary bypass. Due to competition from percutaneous coronary intervention with drug-eluting stents and better long-term outcomes, CABG with arterial grafts alone was carried out in 52% of total cases and in 66% of OPCAB cases. OPCAB is becoming the standard CABG in Japan.