Rudziński Paweł, Piatek Jacek, Gaweda Bogusław, Wierzbicki Karol, Wróbel Krzysztof, Sadowski Jerzy
Klinika Chirurgii Serca, Naczyń i Transplantologii, Instytut Kardiologii, Collegium Medicum Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego w Krakowie.
Przegl Lek. 2007;64(12):1002-3.
Radial artery (RA) as a conduit for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) was introduced in 1973 by Carpantier and within two years its use was abondoned because of high incidence of narrowing and occlusion. The reason for early RA's graft failure became clear in the late 1980s and it was its propensity for vasospasm. In recent years in conjuction with availability of antispasm agents and less invasive harvesting techniques, the RA is increasingly used for CABG. The RA has become the second arterial graft of choice after the internal thoracic artery, mainly because of its promising patency rates. In order to avoid graft traumatization less invasive techniques have been introduced lately. The purpose of this paper was to asses the clinical effect of harvesting RA with the use of the Harmonic Scalpel. We examined the results of this technique among 140 patients operated in our Department in years 2005 and 2006.
