ABSTRACT 72 

NEW SUTURELESS PROXIMAL ANASTOMOSIS SYSTEM

Katrina Christy, RVT, RLATg*, Karen J. Whitehair, DVM, MS⁺, Jon G. Whitehair, DVM⁺, Debra S. Echt, MD*,
*Converge Medical, Inc., Pleasanton, CA, USA,

⁺ BioSurg, Inc., Winters, CA, USA

Off pump coronary artery bypass surgery (OPCAB) requires new devices to facilitate graft anastomosis.  We evaluated a new sutureless anastomosis system (SAS) for performing clamp-free proximal aortic anastomosis.

Twelve sheep underwent OPCAB.  The left carotid artery was harvested, mounted onto a 4 mm SAS connector, loaded into a delivery system and deployed through an incision in the aortic root.  The distal end was sutured to the circumflex coronary artery using standard techniques.

Mean (± SD) time to mount and load the artery was 1.62 minutes (± 0.60).  The total time for proximal anastomosis was 1.90 min (±1.21).  All grafts were patent (n=11) with a mean flow rate of 38 ml/min (±10). Flow was not measured in one case due to a technical failure with the distal anastomosis.  A partial ligation suture was placed proximal to the distal anastomosis in four cases to decrease competitive flow.

With the SAS, the proximal anastomosis can be performed rapidly and reliably during OPCAB without use of a partial occlusion clamp.