Initial Experience of an Automated Anastomotic Distal Device in Off-Pump CABG

Background: Recent progress in minimally invasive technology in the field of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) stimulates interest in anastomotic devices used to facilitate distal coronary anastomosis. We assessed the feasibility of the automated anastomotic distal device (AADD) on arterial grafts in patients who underwent off-pump CABG (OPCAB) and evaluated the early anastomotic patency and clinical results of the AADD based on an elliptical nitinol ring with attached 8 pins.

Methods: Fourteen patients scheduled for multivessel OPCAB using arterial grafts between August 2003 and February 2004 were studied. Among 19 patients enrolled, 5 patients were excluded: 2 patients because of failure of graft flaring onto the implant pins, 2 because of small and diseased target coronary artery (<1.5 mm in diameter), and 1 because of conversion to cardiopulmonary bypass. The distal anastomosis using the AADD was performed for the nondominant coronary artery.

Results: The total number of distal anastomoses was 48 (34 hand-sewn sutures and 14 AADD sutures), and the average number of distal anastomoses per patient was 3.4 +/- 1.0. The grafts used for the AADD were right gastroepiploic artery (RGEA) in 10 patients, saphenous vein anastomosed to the end of the RGEA in 2 patients, and internal thoracic artery in 2 patients. The average time required for distal anastomosis using the AADD (from arteriotomy to anastomosis completion) was 2.9 +/- 0.7 minutes (range, 1.5-4 minutes). The mean flow and pulsatility index of the AADD grafts measured intraoperatively by transit time flow measurement were 20.0 +/- 10.3 mL/min and 2.4 =/- 1.2, respectively. Early postoperative coronary angiographies demonstrated widely patent grafts in 32 of 34 hand-sewn anastomoses and 13 of 14 AADD sutures. There were no adverse events related to the use of the device.

Conclusions: Our initial experience demonstrated that distal anastomosis using the AADD was feasible in most of the patients who underwent OPCAB using arterial grafts. Distal anastomosis using the AADD had the advantage of shortening the actual suturing duration and might provide a method for standardizing the anastomotic procedure.