Interactive cardiovascular and thoracic surgery
-
Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg · Sep 2004
SPY: an innovative intra-operative imaging system to evaluate graft patency during off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting.
Off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) has been rapidly increased, because of its less invasiveness with low complications. However, graft patency rate highly depends on the operators' capability due to technical difficulties. The SPY system, based on the fluorescence of indocyanine green, is an innovative device that permits validation of graft patency intra-operatively. ⋯ SPY images provide critical information to surgeons to detect non-patent grafts, allowing them to be revised while the patient is still on the operating table. Using the SPY system, technical failures could be completely resolved during surgery. The use of the SPY system for intra-operative graft validation during off-pump CABG may become the gold standard for surgical management in the near future.