[Patent venous graft for the left anterior descending branch 25 years after surgery; report of a case].

: We report a case of a patent venous graft for the left anterior descending branch 25 years after surgery. In 1986 at the age of 59 years, the patient underwent coronary artery bypass grafting( CABG) to the left anterior descending(LAD)artery using a saphenous vein graft (SVG). In 2011, twenty-five years after the surgery, the patient experienced a chest pain and was hospitalized. Due to a strong chest pain and pulmonary edema, emergency coronary angiography was performed under tracheal intubation. The SVG was patent, but severe stenosis was found proximal to the middle of the graft. Although percutaneous coronary intervention with a bare-metal stent was performed, the patient died of ventricular fibrillation on the 38th postoperative day. The use of arterial grafts for CABG is currently predominant, but SVG should still be considered a reliable alternative.