Abstract
From September 1997 to January 1998, minimally invasive harvesting of the long saphenous vein was carried out on 30 randomly selected patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting. Two to 4 small skin incisions were made for subcutaneous dissection of the vein. The mean ratio of skin incision length to conduit length was 0.29 ± 0.01. The mean time for conduit preparation was 55 ± 2.6 minutes. Mean hospital stay was 9.2 ± 0.2 days. Morbidity in these patients was significantly lower than that of a control group of 100 patients who underwent the conventional open technique. The method was simple and effective in providing good quality venous conduits at low cost with improved patient satisfaction.
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