BACKGROUND Gastrointestinal (GI) complications following coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), although infrequent, are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. It has been suggested that systemic inflammatory response plays an important role in these complications. Cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is well known to cause increased systemic inflammation, and therefore it has been propo...

BACKGROUND Coronary revascularization on the beating heart is an attractive to option conventional coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) but remains controversial. Our study encourages sufficient proper time for decision-making when changing CABG from off-pump to on-pump CABG. We report herein patients who changed from off-pump CABG to on-pump CABG. METHODS A retrospective analysis of 240 patie...

Off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery by avoiding cardioplegic arrest seems to reduce the risk of ischemic myocardial injury. However, even short-term regional ischemic periods, hemodynamic instability and arrhythmias associated with the procedure can be responsible for myocardial damage. Conditioning, a potential cardio-protective tool during on-pump cardiac surgery, has hardly been investig...

The role for the perfusionist has changed at many institutions that perform Off-Pump Coronary Artery Bypass (OPCAB). Surgeons at our hospitals have adapted a technique called Perfusion-Assisted Direct Coronary Bypass (PADCAB) (1). A simple circuit and pump have been devised for the perfusionist to deliver arterial blood to the myocardium immediately after the completion of the distal coronary a...

A 76-year-old man with situs inversus totalis underwent a successful off-pump three-vessel coronary artery bypass surgery. The postoperative course was uneventful, and the patient was discharged 8 days later. At 9-month follow-up a coronary computed tomography angiography confirmed the viability of all of the grafts, and one year after the operation the patient remained asymptomatic. It compris...

BACKGROUND Coronary artery bypass grafting currently is the best treatment for dialytic patients with multivessel coronary disease, but hospital morbidity and mortality related to procedure is still high. OBJECTIVE Evaluate results and in-hospital outcomes of coronary artery bypass grafting in dialytic patients. METHODS Retrospective unicentric study including 50 consecutive and not selecte...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to evaluate the intraoperative fluorescence imaging (IFI) system in the real-time assessment of graft patency during off-pump coronary artery bypass graft. BACKGROUND Intraoperative fluorescence imaging is an intraoperative angiography-like imaging modality using fluorescent indocyanine green excited with laser light. Recently, assessment of graft patency ...

Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) is an antibody-mediated reaction in which heparin administration causes a person to enter a pathological and highly prothrombotic state. When patients with known HIT undergo coronary artery bypass and grafting procedures, they must be appropriately anticoagulated. The dangers of heparin administration in this population necessitate the use of an alternativ...

OBJECTIVE Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is associated with a systemic inflammatory response. This is mainly attributed to cytokine release caused by CPB and global myocardial ischemia. Coronary artery bypass grafting without cardiopulmonary bypass (off-pump CABG, OPCAB) is now accepted as a less invasive technique than conventional CABG. This study was...