Current Developments in Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting

Dear Colleagues,

Myocardial revascularization of coronary artery disease (CAD) by either percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or coronary arterial bypass graft (CABG) surgery is the most commonly performed procedure in industrialized nations worldwide. In this context, the surgical approach of myocardial revascularization, i.e., CABG, is the most frequently performed cardiac operation, and its prognostic advantages have been clearly demonstrated. Despite an increasing risk profile and negative selection of CAD patients to be surgically treated, outcomes have consistently improved over the past decades, whereas mortality and perioperative complications have significantly decreased in an opposite manner.

These significant advances in the surgical treatment of CAD are due to the numerous strategic, technical, and surgical, as well as perioperative improvements, and finally, to the tremendous generation of robust trial evidence for this surgical method. Continuous improvements and advances of surgical techniques in CABG surgery, be it off-pump or on-pump; the optimization of cardio-protective measures; stroke-preventive measures with targeted evaluation of the ascending aorta and aortic ‘no-touch’ techniques; the further developed and improved minimally invasive approaches; the adequate and individualized use of arterial and venous bypass grafts; the medical treatment and/or surgical-adjuvant optimization; improvements in perioperative mechanical circulatory support measures, as well as significant progress in anesthesiology and perioperative intensive care management; and not least, the systematic and unsparing processing of CABG outcomes by quality control are only a few keywords in this context, which in their entirety make current and future CABG surgery a success story in cardiovascular medicine.

It is my great pleasure and honor to invite worldwide experts in the field of coronary artery bypass graft surgery to join the scientific debate and participate by contributing their current scientific work to this Special Issue of the Journal of Clinical Medicine, entitled ‘Current Developments in Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting’.

This is a conjunct Special Issue of JCM and Hearts. Authors are free to choose the journal they would like to submit to based on their submission topic.

Prof. Dr. Matthias Thielmann
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Hearts is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• myocardial revascularization
• cardiac surgery
• coronary artery bypass grafting
• off-pump/beating heart/on-pump surgery
• cardioprotection
• multiarterial grafting
• minimally invasive approaches
• quality control