Purpose The saphenous vein is the most commonly used bypass conduit for coronary surgery. Endoscopic harvesting techniques are associated with significant reduction of wound complications but are time-consuming and expensive. The authors... more
Purpose The saphenous vein is the most commonly used bypass conduit for coronary surgery. Endoscopic harvesting techniques are associated with significant reduction of wound complications but are time-consuming and expensive. The authors developed a device to perform minimally invasive harvesting of the saphenous vein—rapidly, inexpensively, and safely. Description Patients hospitalized for isolated CABG (n = 134) participated in the study. Each vein had been harvested through the use of our minimally invasive system. Evaluation The veins were harvested in 130 cases; 378 vein samples were collected for pathology study, with complete integrity of the vein as the result of the “no touch” technique with the device. This integrity could be very important for the long-term patency of the vein graft. After surgery, there were no wound dehiscences, infections, or major hematomas. There was 1 case (0.76%) of superficial hematoma and 3 cases (2.30%) of lymphoceles. Conclusions Although comme...
Research Interests:
Between November 2003-July 2004 we treated 134 patients for CABG surgery. The instrumentation: 2 steel cylinders (CSD): the inner one ending with a silastic ring, the outer one with a diagonal sharp-edged and a steel probe (SP). At the... more
Between November 2003-July 2004 we treated 134 patients for CABG surgery. The instrumentation: 2 steel cylinders (CSD): the inner one ending with a silastic ring, the outer one with a diagonal sharp-edged and a steel probe (SP). At the distal margin of the patella, a ...