In the good old days, babushkas going for a CABG (coronary artery bypass grafting) would expect to wake up with a big scar along the entire length of a thigh (or both). You see, deep veins of the thigh are harvested and used as grafts to bypass the cholesterol plug inside the coronary artery, and to supply the heart with blood (the “bypass” that everyone is talking about is a piece of the vein shunting blood from aorta to coronary artery, past the plug). The problem of the good old days was that big long scars would not heal, would get infected or would give much-too-much pain (“no pain, no gain” days).
Now things have changed. In today’s turbulent times, small incision is done, endoscopic camera is inserted and veins are harvested with the help of the endoscope, from the insides of the thigh. Here is a new system from Terumo Cardiovascular Systems, which has been announced yesterday:
ANN ARBOR, Mich., Jan. 20 /PRNewswire/ — Terumo Cardiovascular Systems Corporation has introduced the VirtuoSaph™ Endoscopic Vein Harvesting (EVH) System for use in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). The system is designed to enhance the precision and performance of clinicians interested in introducing this endoscopic procedure at their institutions. The new minimally invasive device provides an endoscopic approach to saphenous vein harvesting in which one small leg incision minimizes scarring, morbidity and infection associated with traditional longitudinal incisions.
Terumo also combined the VirtuoSaph EVH System with an endoscopic simulator for surgical training of residents.
More at Terumo Cardiovascular Systems…