New shapes and sizes: a T-tube coronary conduit

Conduits for coronary bypass: vein grafts

The saphenous vein has been the principal conduit for coronary bypass grafting from the beginning, circa 1970. This report briefly traces this history and concomitantly presents one surgeons experience and personal views on use of the vein graft. As such it is not exhaustive but meant to be practical with a modest number of references. The focus is that of providing guidance and perspective which may be at variance with that of others and recognizing that there may be many ways to accomplish the task at hand. Hopefully the surgeon in training/early career may find this instructive on the journey to surgical maturity.

Composite venous coronary grafts: construction made simple

We describe an efficient, safe, and effective method for constructing a satisfactory composite venous conduit from 2 portions of saphenous vein, which by themselves would be inadequate in length to function as independent conduits.