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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Personal Folders Download to citation manager Author home page(s): Marco Cirillo Antonio Messina Margherita Dalla Tomba Federico Brunelli Emmanuel Villa Giovanni Troise Permission Requests Google Scholar Articles by Cirillo, M. Articles by Troise, G. PubMed Articles by Cirillo, M. Articles by Troise, G. Related Collections Coronary disease

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How To Do It

A New No-Touch Aorta Technique for Arterial-Source, Off-Pump Coronary Surgery

^a Cardiovascular Department, Heart Surgery Unit, Poliambulanza Foundation Hospital, Brescia, Italy
^b Radiology Unit, Poliambulanza Foundation Hospital, Brescia, Italy

Accepted for publication July 1, 2009.

^_* Address correspondence to Dr Cirillo, Poliambulanza Foundation Hospital, Via Leonida Bissolati 57, Brescia, 25125, Italy (Email: cirillo-marco{at}poliambulanza.it).

The possibility of avoiding the manipulation of the ascending aorta plays a key role in the neuroprotective effect of off-pump coronary revascularization, reducing the overall invasiveness.

We have devised a new surgical plan using the proximal stump of the right internal thoracic artery as an intrathoracic, arterial source of flow for the saphenous vein, avoiding direct aorta manipulation. The saphenous vein can be as long as required, and its proximal anastomosis guarantees a better match of the two conduits and undergoes a lower peak pressure.