الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 68 |  |  |
| | | from | 68 | | |
Abstract
Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is the operation most commonly performed by cardiac surgeons.
The internal thoracic artery (ITA) is commonly used as a conduit in coronary artery bypass grafting. It has been considered as the gold standard conduit of choice for grafting the left anterior descending coronary artery.
Sternal wound infection (SWI) is a recognized and important postoperative complication of CABG operation associated with substantial morbidity and mortalility.
The correlation between post-CABG wound infections and the use of the internal thoracic artery (ITA) is also widely known.
The ITA is harvested by different techniques (pedicled, semi-skeletonized, skeletonized). Each technique is associated with its own advantages and disadvantages. Another aspect is whether unilateral or bilateral ITAs should be used, which introduces further consequent advantages and disadvantages.
The harvesting of the internal thoracic artery as a pedicled conduit and to a lesser extent as skeletonized conduit have some sort of sternal devascularization which affect the sternal microcirculation and may affect the sternal wound healing.
Pedicled bilateral ITA harvesting is traditionally considered hazardous in diabetics and many prefer skeletonized ITA mobilization, because skeletonized ITAs are associated with a higher residual sternal blood supply than that dissected as a pedicle.
Skeletonized IMA harvesting can be beneficial in reducing sternal wound complications, particularly in bilateral harvesting, but also in unilateral harvesting especially in high risk patients such as diabetic patients or patients with other microvasculopathy, and/or obese patients, and/or older patients with thin osteoporotic sternum, and/or patients with compromised respiratory function.
We aimed to compare between the effect of the use of skeletonized SITA and BITA on the incidence of p