PATIENTS and METHODS
The study was approved by the Ethics and Research Board Committee of our hospital (King Fahd Military Medical Complex, Dhahran, KSA) and informed consent was obtained by all patients involved.
Between 2016 and 2018, 50 patients undergoing isolated, first time, elective multivessel CABG with the use of one pedicled RA taken from the non-dominant hand were prospectively randomized, using the envelope randomization method, to two groups. In the first group (n=25 patients) the RA was harvested endoscopically. In the second group (n=25 patients) an open harvest technique was employed. Other types of conduits, such as LIMA, right internal mammary artery and SVG (harvested also endoscopically in all patients) were used as required.
These two groups were compared with regard to the following parameters:
Preoperative : demographics, comorbid conditions, cardiac function.
Intraoperative : length of skin incision, length of harvested RA, time harvest of RA, aortic clamping time, cardiopulmonary bypass time, RA graft flow and pulsatility index.
Postoperative : clinical outcome, wound healing (haematomas, wound discharge, infection), neuralgias (major or minor), vascular complications, limitation of hand activity (hand function), patient satisfaction, LV function (transthoracic ECHO) and 1-year RA patency by means of 64 slice CT angiography.
To assess patient satisfaction a brief questionnaire was filled in by the patients 12 months after their operation asking them to classify their overall feeling from the RA harvest procedure in their arm (taking into account symptoms of pain, neuralgias, numbness, tingling, or any other symptom, hand function, cosmetic result) into one of the five categories: poor, average, good, very good and excellent.