title: A novel figure A-shape sternal retractor for off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting.
abstract: A novel figure A-shape sternal retractor was developed to avoid brachial plexus injury caused by sternal wide separation, and facilitate exposure of circumflex artery by elevating a rake and dropping the heart into the right pleural cavity during off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting. In addition, it has several notches to hold deep pericardial stitches in order to enhance the exposure.
authors.affiliation: Department of General and Cardiothoracic Surgery, Kanazawa University School of Medicine, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan. tamotsuyasuda@aol.com
authors.forename: Tamotsu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yasuda
authors.forename: Go
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Shigeyuki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tomita
mesh_terms: D001917:Brachial Plexus / Q000293:injuries; D047549:Coronary Artery Bypass, Off-Pump / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D013249:Sternum / Q000601:surgery*; D013525:Surgical Instruments; D020196:Trauma, Nervous System / Q000517:prevention & control