title: [Advantages of side-to-side anastomosis in the assessment and revision of coronary artery bypass grafting].
abstract: With the advent of drug eluting stents in percutaneous coronary intervention, required quality level of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) has been elevating. To obtain nearly perfect patency of bypass grafts, intraoperative assessment and repair of abnormal grafts are helpful. We report systematic revision and safe repair technique of arterial grafts in CABG. Side-to-side instead of commonly used end-to-side anastomosis of arterial grafts is the first step in this technique. When any abnormalities are noted in intraoperative flowmetry of a graft, the distal surgical clip is removed. Free flow of the graft is measured. A coronary probe is gently inserted into the graft and the coronary artery. Vasodilators can be injected into the graft if necessary. When direct revision of the anastomosis is indicated, the graft is cut longitudinally from the distal end up to just proximal to the anastomotic site. The shape of the anastomosis can be observed directly without removing sutures. When re-anastomosis is not indicated, the distal remnant graft tissue is folded back and utilized as a patch. Thus the graft can be easily closed without narrowing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Japanese Red Cross Nagoya First Hospital, Nagoya, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hagiwara
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakayama
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakayama
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Asai
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shirakawa
mesh_terms: D000714:Anastomosis, Surgical / Q000379:methods; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass / Q000379:methods*; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D016343:Monitoring, Intraoperative; D014654:Vascular Patency