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Updated: May 9, 2026

Standardized Technique of Aortic Valve Re-implantation for Valve-sparing Aortic Root Replacement
Published on: December 11, 2017
[Valve surgery in patients with prior coronary artery bypass grafting]
Tomoyuki Fujita1, Junjiro Kobayashi
1Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, Suita, Japan.
Insights
Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) patients undergoing valve surgery face risks from injured grafts. A novel "internal mammary artery (IMA)-non-touch procedure" protects grafts, and transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) may become the standard therapy.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Surgery
- Cardiac Valve Interventions
- Minimally Invasive Cardiac Procedures
Context:
- Valve surgery in patients with prior coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) presents significant challenges.
- Injury to patent grafts during resternotomy or dissection increases operative mortality and morbidity.
- Existing techniques to protect internal mammary artery (IMA) grafts are suboptimal.
Purpose:
- To introduce a novel
Summary:
- The
- Impact
Impact:
- The developed IMA-non-touch procedure minimizes myocardial injury during cardiac arrest by avoiding graft manipulation.
- Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is anticipated to become the standard therapy for aortic valve replacement (AVR) in patients with prior CABG once available in Japan.
- This approach mitigates the risk of patent graft injury, improving outcomes for CABG patients requiring future valve surgery.
Abstract:
Valve surgery in patients with prior coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is challenging procedure. If the patent graft was injured during resternotomy or dissection of the graft, operative mortality and morbidity was significantly increased. To avoid the injury, left internal mammary artery( LIMA)should be passed through under the left lung and right internal mammary artery (RIMA) should be avoided if valve surgery is anticipated in the future. We invented "internal mammary artery (IMA)-non-touch procedure" which included systemic hyperkalemia and mild hypothermia during cardiopulmonary bypass without touching IMA. With this technique, cardiac arrest can be achieved without myocardial injury avoiding IMA injury. Available transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is awaited in Japan. Patent graft is no longer a risk for TAVR, although long term results have not been obtained. Therefore, once TAVR becomes available, TAVR can be the standard therapy for aortic valve replacement( AVR) in patients with prior CABG.
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