Ann Thorac Surg 2001;72:S2258-S2259
© 2001 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons
Supplement: Monitoring and improving patient safety during and following cardiac surgery
Discussion
Frank W. Sellke, MDa
a Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, 110 Francis Street, #LMOB Suite 2A, Boston, MA 02215, USA
e-mail: fsellke@caregroup.harvard.edu
Doctor Wolfe’s presentation very nicely describes several of the methods available to cardiac surgeons to assess graft patency and the quality of distal anastomoses both intraoperatively and postoperatively. The outcome of coronary bypass surgery depends largely on the adequacy of the anastomoses, both distally and proximally. It has been assumed that if you could perform anastomoses under direct vision, there would be little reason to believe that technical factors would contribute to the short-term or long-term closure of arterial or venous bypasses. However, with the advent of MIDCAB and OPCAB, this has really been questioned, and the reliability of nonassisted assessment of graft patency using direct vision as the only criterion has also been questioned. As Dr Wolfe mentioned, the use of electromagnetic flow probes has never really been found to add much to the clinical assessment of graft patency. There is wide variation in the readings, tempting the surgeon to always . . . [Full Text of this Article]
Copyright © 2001 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons.
