HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Personal Folders Download to citation manager Author home page(s): Marco Zenati Lawrence Spier James Gammie Bartley Griffith Permission Requests Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by R. Unnikrishnan Nair, MS, FRCS, Articles by Griffith, B. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by R. Unnikrishnan Nair, MS, FRCS, Articles by Griffith, B.

J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 1998;115:1390
© 1998 Mosby, Inc.

BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS

Resident training and minimally invasive cardiac surgery

Leeds, United Kingdom

To the Editor:

We enjoyed reading the editorial by Reardon and associates, titled "Minimally Invasive Coronary Artery Surgery—A Word of Caution" (J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 1997;114:419-20), and we share many of the views and concerns expressed regarding minimally invasive coronary artery bypass grafting (MICABG). However, we were surprised to read that MICABG cannot be considered a truly successful procedure because it cannot be mastered by surgical residents. We would like to share with the readership of the Journal the experience of the Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery Program of the University of Pittsburgh. Within our Cardiothoracic Surgery Training Program (Bartley P. Griffith, MD, Program Director), our residents (PGY-6 and beyond) are being actively trained in MICABG as part of their coronary surgery armamentarium. For instance, during the 6-month period July to December 1997, our current chief resident (Dr. Lawrence Spier) performed as "first" surgeon 25 "full credit" MICABG operations (attending surgeon scrubbed and teaching while first assisting). The angiographic patency of the left internal thoracic artery to left anterior descending coronary artery in these 25 patients is 100%, whereas our overall angiographic patency is 97.8%. Our cardiothoracic surgery residents routinely participate in the preoperative patient selection for MICABG and follow-up after the operation. Furthermore, given our large volume of cases and our ability to attract new technologies, our residents are exposed and trained with a large variety of new devices for harvesting the left internal thoracic artery and mechanical stabilization of target vessels.

We believe that MICABG is a highly reproducible surgical technique in the current "mechanical stabilization" era and can be taught successfully to our cardiothoracic surgery residents with comparable results.

, Marco Zenati, MD, Lawrence Spier, MD, James S.Gammie, MD, Bartley P.Griffith, MDDivision of Cardiothoracic SurgeryUniversity of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-2582

This article has been cited by other articles:

				G. Davidavicius, F. Van Praet, S. Mansour, F. Casselman, J. Bartunek, I. Degrieck, F. Wellens, R. De Geest, H. Vanermen, W. Wijns, et al. Hybrid Revascularization Strategy: A Pilot Study on the Association of Robotically Enhanced Minimally Invasive Direct Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery and Fractional Flow Reserve-Guided Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Circulation, August 30, 2005; 112(9_suppl): I-317 - I-322. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				The "sternum calvary" J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg., February 1, 1999; 117(2): 410 - 411. [Full Text]

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Personal Folders Download to citation manager Author home page(s): Marco Zenati Lawrence Spier James Gammie Bartley Griffith Permission Requests Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by R. Unnikrishnan Nair, MS, FRCS, Articles by Griffith, B. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by R. Unnikrishnan Nair, MS, FRCS, Articles by Griffith, B.