Bypass innovation ensures leg scar only 1in

A NEW surgical procedure for coronary artery bypass patients now available in a private hospital in Ireland for the first time allows veins to be taken from the leg through a small one inch cut instead of one stretching from ankle to groin.

During a coronary bypass procedure the surgeon needs to take one or more healthy vessels from patients. They are taken from the leg, arm or chest and then used to create new vessels during the heart surgery.

The traditional procedure involved removing the vein through a long incision that may stretch from ankle to groin.

The new procedure — endoscopic vessel harvesting, allows a vein or artery to be removed through a small incision less than one inch long.

The surgical technique was carried out for the first time in Blackrock Clinic last week and was led by cardiothoracic surgeon Michael Tolan.

It is currently the only hospital in Ireland providing endoscopic vessel harvesting.

An endoscope connected to a video camera is first inserted into the incision to locate the vessel and a tunnel is then created around it using carbon dioxide.

The tunnel allows the surgeon to move along the vessel, cutting branches and gradually detaching it from surrounding tissue with minimal stress to the leg.

The vessel is drawn out of the leg through the small incision.

The hospital’s chief executive, Bryan Harty, said very often in bypass surgery patients experience more post-operative pain from the leg incision than from the chest incision. It can delay rehabilitation.

The procedure was pioneered in the US and is used on about 90% of patients there. The complication rate is less than 1%, compared with 15% for traditional methods.