The no-touch vein graft harvesting technique for coronary artery bypass grafting surgery reduces mortality: a long-term follow-up study

Background The saphenous vein is still the most widely used conduit in CABG surgery despite its poor long term patency. In the 1990’s a new No-touch technique for saphenous vein graft harvesting for CABG was introduced where the vein graft is harvested with a pedicle of surrounding tissue. With the No-touch technique the vein graft does not go into spasm and the vessel wall does not have to be exposed to distension-induced trauma. A previous randomized trial has shown a significantly higher patency rate for vein grafts harvested with the No-touch technique compared to vein grafts harvested with conventional technique and the patency for No-touch vein grafts was comparable to the patency of the left internal thoracic artery, 8.5 years after surgery. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the increased patency rate for No-touch vein grafts is reflected in clinical outcome.