Coronary end-to-side sleeve anastomosis using adhesive in off-pump bypass grafting in the pig

BACKGROUND: In the exploration of facilitated coronary anastomosis strategies, we assessed a new octylcyanoacrylate adhesive in combination with a modified end-to-side sleeve anastomosis in off-pump bypass grafting in the pig. METHODS: Sleeve-adhesive anastomoses (n = 20) were evaluated intraoperatively, at 3 days (n = 4), and at 5 weeks (n = 16) in an off-pump, low (< or = 15 mL/min; n = 10) and high flow (approximately 60 mL/min; n = 10) porcine bypass model. All anastomoses were examined by flow measurement, angiography, and histology. RESULTS: Anastomosis construction took 8.5 minutes (6.7 to 10.2 minutes; median [15th to 85th percentile]). At 5 weeks, all anastomoses were fully patent (FitzGibbon grade A). The adhesive did not cause impaired vessel wall healing, but was surrounded by a focal acute and limited chronic (foreign body giant cells occasionally seen) inflammatory reaction at the adventitial application site. CONCLUSIONS: Octyl-cyanoacrylate tissue adhesive combined with end-to-side internal mammary to coronary artery sleeve anastomosis construction proved to be feasible, even in low bypass graft flow conditions (< or = 15 mL/min; prothrombotic milieu) in the pig and deserves interest in exploration of facilitated anastomosis strategies in coronary artery bypass grafting.