The C-Port Distal Coronary Anastomotic Device is Comparable with a Hand-Sewn Anastomosis

Abstract

Coronary artery bypass surgery is most commonly performed using a hand-sewn technique with a continuous monofilament suture. The C-Port distal anastomotic device is a miniature stapler designed to create an arteriotomy and attach the graft to the coronary artery all in one step. It is the only distal coronary anastomotic device currently approved for clinical use and can be useful in facilitating less invasive coronary surgery. This report examines the histological attributes of such an anastomosis in a patient who underwent heart transplantation approximately 1 year after robotic totally endoscopic stapled coronary bypass using the C-Port anastomotic device. There have been no previous reports of histological examination of this type of bypass graft in humans in the literature. We found that the C-Port single-shot stapled coronary anastomotic device had a similar histological appearance to a traditional hand-sewn technique using monofilament suture. The amount of inflammation around the anastomosis using the two techniques was found to be comparable in this histological case study in an explanted human heart. There was no evidence of increased neointimal hyperplasia. These findings add to the already known equivalent clinical patency rates of the C-Port device in coronary bypass procedures.