Comparative effectiveness of antiplatelet therapies for saphenous venous graft occlusion and cardiovascular outcomes: a network meta-analysis.

Introduction: The ideal antiplatelet therapy to maintain graft patency after coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) remains controversial. This review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) aims to compare aspirin monotherapy, ticagrelor monotherapy, dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) with aspirin and ticagrelor (Asp+Tica) or with aspirin and clopidogrel (Asp+Clopi) to evaluate differences in post-CABG saphenous vein graft (SVG) occlusion, internal mammary artery (IMA) occlusion, myocardial infarction (MI), bleeding, and all-cause mortality (ACM) rates.

Evidence acquisition: The literature review was conducted on several electronic databases, including Medline, Embase, and Cochrane Central, from inception to August 10, 2022. Data was extracted using a predefined proforma. A Bayesian random-effects model was used for calculating point effect estimates (odds ratio and standard deviation). Quality assessment was done using the Cochrane RoB-2 tool.

Evidence synthesis: Ten RCTs comprising 2139 patients taking anti-platelets post-CABG were included. For preventing SVG occlusion, Asp+Tica showed the lowest mean AR of 0.144±0.068. Asp+Tica also showed a trend toward lesser postoperative MI risk and lower ACM rates, with a mean AR of 0.040±0.053 and 0.018±0.029, respectively. For maintaining IMA graft patency, Asp+Clopi showed the lowest mean AR of 0.092±0.053. Ticagrelor had the lowest mean AR of 0.049±0.075, with Asp+Tica showing a similar mean AR of 0.049±0.045 for postoperative major bleeding risk.

Conclusions: Our analysis demonstrates that Asp+Tica can be the ideal therapy for patients undergoing CABG using SVG as it decreases the risk of post-CABG SVG occlusion and is not associated with a significantly higher risk for major bleeding.