Revascularization of the right coronary artery by retrograde perfusion of the mammary artery. An experimental study.

Although the internal mammary artery bypass seems an ideal coronary bypass vessel, it has not usually been possible to use this vessel to bypass distal lesions in the right coronary circulation. In this experiment, the right internal mammary artery was utilized in retrograde fashion to evaluate this anatomically more suitable vessel as a bypass graft to the occluded right coronary artery in the dog. Reversal of acute myocardial ischemia was demonstrated by mapping epicardial ST-segment elevation and measuring surface pH. Preliminary long-term experiments have also demonstrated patency and perfusion of the distal right coronary artery by this method.