Endoscopic Saphenous Vein and Radial Artery Harvesting

Abstract

Over the past decade, there has been an increased adoption of minimally invasive techniques for saphenous vein and radial artery procurement during coronary artery bypass surgery. Endoscopic approaches for vessel harvesting offer consistent advantages when compared to conventional “open” techniques in terms of neurological and wound complications, pain reduction and patients’ satisfaction. While concerns had been raised initially regarding conduit quality and potential damage occurring with an endoscopic approach and thereby potentially affecting the longevity of the graft itself, there is ample evidence in literature about similar survival outcomes and cardiac-related events at mid and long-term follow-up when compared to an open technique. Different strategies (sealed vs non-sealed) are nowadays available for endoscopic conduit harvesting and available evidence validates the safety and efficacy of the approach. Endoscopic harvesting techniques can be safely adopted as a standard of care for grafts procurement in patients undergoing multivessel coronary artery revascularization.