Adjunctive transmyocardial revascularization: five-year follow-up of a prospective, randomized trial.

Background: In a prospective, randomized trial involving 263 patients who would be incompletely revascularized by coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) alone, CABG plus transmyocardial revascularization (CABG/TMR) provided an early mortality benefit with similar angina relief compared with CABG alone at 1 year. We evaluated the long-term outcome of patients randomized to CABG/TMR or CABG alone.

Methods: Thirteen centers that enrolled 83% (218/263) of the patients in the original trial participated in this longitudinal study.