Practice improves performance on a coronary anastomosis simulator, attending surgeon supervision does not.

Objectives: Enthusiasm for simulation early in cardiothoracic surgery training is growing, yet evidence demonstrating its utility is limited. We examined the effect of supervised and unsupervised training on coronary anastomosis performance in a randomized trial among medical students.

Methods: Forty-five medical students were recruited for this single-blinded, randomized controlled trial using a low-fidelity simulator.

Conduits for coronary bypass: strategies.

Strategic planning is integral to any operation but complexity varies immensely and therefore the effort necessary to create the optimal plan. The previous three reports have discussed individual conduits and herein is an attempt to present approaches to common situations which the author favors. Although much has been learned over 45 years about use and subsequent behavior of venous and arterial grafts we continue to learn and, as a result, evolve new strategies or modify those now popular.

Conduits for Coronary Bypass: Arteries Other Than the Internal Thoracic Artery's.

This is the third in a series on coronary artery bypass which reviews three alternative arterial conduits. The radial artery has become the most widely used of the three and accumulating experience demonstrates better patency at 10 years versus saphenous vein. Drawbacks are a long incision on the forearm, the propensity for spasm and persistent sensory disturbance in about 10%.

Conduits for coronary bypass: internal thoracic artery.

This second report in the series on coronary artery bypass presents the authors experience and personal views on the internal thoracic artery (ITA) which date to 1966. There has been a very gradual evolution in the acceptance of this conduit which was initially compared with the saphenous vein and viewed as an improbable alternative to it. As is common with concepts and techniques which are 'outside the box' there was skepticism and criticism of this new conduit which was more difficult and time consuming to harvest for the surgeon who had to do it all.

Conduits for coronary bypass: vein grafts.

The saphenous vein has been the principal conduit for coronary bypass grafting from the beginning, circa 1970. This report briefly traces this history and concomitantly presents one surgeons experience and personal views on use of the vein graft. As such it is not exhaustive but meant to be practical with a modest number of references.

Radial artery free and T graft patency as coronary artery bypass conduit over a 15-year period.

Background: The radial artery is often used as the second arterial graft for coronary artery bypass grafting. Little is known about the differences in long-term patency between radial free and T grafts. This study was performed to determine long-term radial artery patency over a 15-year period.

Abdominal wall necrosis after harvest of both internal thoracic and inferior epigastric arteries.

Background: The internal thoracic artery (ITA) and inferior epigastric artery (IEA) may be used as conduits for myocardial revascularization. Harvesting the ITAs and IEAs can lead to clinically significant ischemia of the anterior abdominal wall.

Methods: We created a registry with data from 108 patients receiving myocardial revascularization with 1 or greater ITA and (or) 1 or greater IEA.

Absence of deterioration of vascular function of the donor limb at late follow-up after radial artery harvesting.

Objective: Radial artery harvesting has been questioned because of purported long-term circulatory consequences. Previous midterm Doppler ultrasonographic results are inconsistent regarding ulnar arterial effects. Flow-mediated vasodilatation more sensitively measures response to shear stress as index of arterial reactivity and function.

Operative treatment of coronary atherosclerosis.

The evolution of percutaneous intervention has reduced the prevalence of coronary bypass surgery in a patient population that is older, with more comorbidity and advanced coronary disease. Despite this less favorable group, perioperative mortality has continued to decline as the operation improves. The latter includes off-pump coronary grafting, smaller incisions, better intraoperative myocardial preservation, improving management of cardiopulmonary bypass, perioperative glucose control, and increasing use of arterial conduits as the radial artery comes of age and the gastroepiploic artery is reborn as a free graft.

Status of percutaneous coronary intervention and coronary artery bypass.

At present a rapid and profound change in myocardial revascularization has evolved from the work of Gruentzig. The recent technological advances have been so fast paced that there has not been ample time to fully assess each new facet of technology and pharmaceutics before another arrives. The interface between percutaneous intervention (PCI) and coronary artery bypass (CAB) is not well defined as previously so that continental, national and regional differences exist.

Bland-White-Garland syndrome in pregnancy: reoperation of ALCAPA with an internal thoracic radial artery "Y"-graft.

Anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery is rare and more so in the adult. Reimplantation of the left main coronary into the aorta is successful in early life, but it may be more difficult in the adult who had a previous repair. We report a successful reoperation of anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery in an adult patient using a left internal thoracic and radial artery "Y"-graft.

Chylothorax after internal thoracic artery harvest.

Chylothorax is a rare complication following coronary artery bypass graft surgery. We report a case of chylothorax that complicated a left internal thoracic artery harvest and review the literature regarding this subject.

Valve replacement after T-grafting: "beating heart surgery".

Patent internal thoracic and radial artery T-graft will adequately perfuse the heart during reoperation. Five of 1,023 patients with prior T-grafting had aortic (3) or mitral valve redo operations in which the heart was allowed to beat (after an initial dose of cardioplegia) during the operation without clamping the patent T-graft. Rapid resumption of cardiac function after one dose of cardioplegia and no intraoperative or postoperative evidence of myocardial infarction indicated adequacy of perfusion without apparent myocardial injury.

Prosthesis-patient mismatch after aortic valve replacement: impact of age and body size on late survival.

Background: The purpose of this study was to identify patient subgroups in which prosthesis-patient mismatch most influenced late survival.

Methods: Over a 12-year period, 1,400 consecutive patients underwent bioprosthetic (933 patients) or mechanical (467) aortic valve replacement. Prosthesis-patient mismatch was defined as prosthetic effective orifice area/body surface area less than 0.