How is internal mammary artery harvested?

As the fascia is pulled down with forceps, the vein is exposed using the electrocautery tip. When the under-surface of the vein is clearly exposed, the artery subsequently becomes visible. The cautery tip gently separates the vein and IMA. The trunk of the IMA is separated from the chest wall gradually.

What is Lima harvesting?

The first is the pedicled LIMA harvesting. In this technique, LIMA is excised together with the surrounding tissues. The LIMA that comprises intrathoracic fascia, veins around the artery, adipose tissue and sometimes muscular tissue is called a pedicled LIMA.

What is internal mammary graft?

As the most commonly used bypass grafts, the internal thoracic (mammary) artery (ITA) grafts show the best long-term results. In most cases, the artery is left intact at its origin, with the opposite end sewn to the coronary artery below the site of the blockage.

What does harvesting an artery mean?

This surgery uses a healthy blood vessel taken from your leg, arm, or chest and connects it to the other arteries in your heart so that blood is bypassed around the diseased or blocked area.

Why use left internal mammary artery?

Left internal mammary artery provides higher cumulative survival (P<0.01), less early recurrence of angina (P<0.01), fewer myocardial infarctions (P<0.02), fewer reoperations (P<0.001), and better cumulative event-free survival (P<0.01) than saphenous vein graft, 15 years after the operation [5] .

What does Lima stand for in medical terms?

Over the last two decades, many studies have shown better long-term patency rates and survival in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) with left internal mammary artery (LIMA) to the left anterior descending artery (LAD).

What is a skeletonized graft?

The predominant practice in cardiac surgery is to harvest the arterial conduit as a pedicled graft. Skeletonized conduits are arteries that have been dissected from all surrounding tissues, including accompanying veins, fascia, lymphatics and adipose tissue, leaving the adventitia as the outermost layer.

What is Skeletonization in surgery?

Surgery A popular term for the stripping of serosal tissues from certain structures–eg, the round ligament, fallopian tube, to facilitate clamping or excision and minimize bleeding.

Why is the saphenous vein harvested?

The saphenous vein is generally acceptable as a conduit in the absence of other vascular pathologies in the leg (varicosities in the vein, venous insufficiency, previous deep vein thrombosis [DVT], or small lumen diameter) or overlying infection.

What is internal thoracic artery?

The internal thoracic artery, aka the internal mammary artery, supplies the breast and the anterior chest wall. The internal thoracic artery travels along the inner surface of the anterior chest wall on both sides. The internal thoracic artery runs under the fascia and deep to the intercostal muscles.

What is left internal mammary artery?

In human anatomy, the internal thoracic artery (ITA), previously commonly known as the internal mammary artery (a name still common among surgeons), is an artery that supplies the anterior chest wall and the breasts.