Harvesting the radial artery.

The radial artery (RA) has emerged as an important arterial graft for coronary bypass surgery. With improving five-year patency rates and increasing uptake, great attention has been focused on the optimal conduit harvesting technique. We herein present our approach to RA harvesting.

Lesional tachycardias related to mitral valve surgery.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to define the anatomic distribution of electrically abnormal atrial tissue and mechanisms of atrial tachycardia (AT) after mitral valve (MV) surgery.

Background: Atrial tachycardia is a well-recognized long-term complication of MV surgery. Because atrial incisions from repair of congenital heart defects provide a substrate for re-entrant arrhythmias in the late postoperative setting, we hypothesized that atriotomies or cannulation sites during MV surgery also contributed to postoperative arrhythmias.

Effect of radial artery harvest on collateral forearm blood flow and digital perfusion.

Background: Changes describing digital and forearm circulation after radial artery harvest have been reported infrequently.

Methods: This prospective study examined digital perfusion and forearm collateral circulation preoperatively and postoperatively in patients who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting with radial artery free grafts. Noninvasive evaluation was conducted with digital photoelectric plethysmography and color flow and pulsed Doppler studies.

The effects of platelet inhibitors on blood use in cardiac surgery.

Platelet inhibition via glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa receptor antagonists has greatly reduced the need for emergent cardiac surgery. However, this change has come at a cost to both the patient and the cardiac surgical team in terms of increased bleeding risk. Current guidelines for patients requiring coronary artery bypass surgery include: 1) cessation of GP IIb/IIIa inhibitor; 2) delay of surgery for up to 12 h if abciximab, tirofiban, or eptafibitide is used; 3) utilization of ultrafiltration via zero balance technique; 4) maintenance of standard heparin dosing despite elevated bleeding times; and 5) transfusion of platelets as needed, rather than prophylactically.