Techniques and Outcomes of the No-Touch Vein Conduit as a Y-Composite Graft

ABSTRACT

Although the saphenous vein is a widely used conduit for coronary artery bypass grafting, revascularization using the saphenous vein as an aortocoronary bypass graft has shown disadvantages of lower long-term graft patency rates and subsequently worse clinical outcomes, compared with revascularization using the internal thoracic artery. Of the various efforts to overcome the limitations of vein conduit that are resulting from structural and functional differences from arterial conduit, recent technical improvement in no-touch vein composite graft construction and outcomes of revascularization using no-touch vein composite grafts based on the left internal thoracic artery will be discussed in this topic.

Keywords:
Coronary Artery Bypass; Venous Grafts; Saphenous Vein; Transplants; Mammary Arteries.