Experience in setting up non-robotic minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass grafting in a non-routine off-pump coronary artery bypass center.

BACKGROUND

The safety of minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass (MIDCAB) has been proven. Nevertheless, reports on clinical outcomes in MIDCAB and the learning curve of this challenging technique in a non-routine off-pump coronary artery bypass (OPCAB) center are still limited. Here, we introduce our clinical outcomes of non-robotic MIDCAB.

METHODS

Between August 2022 and March 2024, 72 consecutive patients with a mean age of 67.4 ± 9.5 years underwent non-robotic MIDCAB (defined as off-pump bypass grafting of the left internal mammary artery to the left anterior descending artery through left-sided mini-thoracotomy). We analyzed operation time and incidence of major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCE). Further, subgroup analyses included body mass index (BMI) with a cut-off of 30 kg/m [BMI ≧ 30: n = 18 (25.0%)] and body surface area (BSA) with a cut-off of 2.0 m [BSA ≧ 2.0: n = 34 (47.2%)].

RESULTS

All patients survived, whereas MACCE occurred in 4 patients (5.6%). By correlation analyses, no learning curve for operation time was observed in all cases analysis (p = 0.79), but MACCE (n = 4, 5.6%) exclusively observed in the first 34 patients. Furthermore, BMI ≧ 30 or BSA ≧ 2.0 was not significantly related to longer operation time (p = 0.42 and p = 0.52, respectively) and MACCE (p = 0.26 and p = 0.35, respectively). In addition, body size had no effect on operation time according to multiple regression analysis (p = 0.36).

CONCLUSIONS

Our study suggested that implementing non-robotic MIDCAB can be safely accomplished at a center with no previous routine in OPCAB surgery, even for patients with bigger body sizes. MACCE occurs more frequently in the early stages when adopting this surgical technique.