[Graft Harvesting for Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting]

In coronary artery bypass grafting, graft harvesting is a fundamental and important technique of cardiovascular surgeons. Young cardiovascular surgeons typically experience graft harvesting for the first time early in their training. While several methods for graft harvesting have been developed in recent years with the goal of improving graft patency and reducing surgical invasiveness, the conventional and basic procedures remain important and are performed widely in cardiovascular institutions throughout Japan. Becoming familiarized with these basic graft harvest procedures is considered extremely important and useful for young cardiovascular surgeons. In this chapter, we discuss the basic methods of harvesting grafts of the internal thoracic artery, radial artery, gastroepiploic artery, and saphenous vein.