The Evaluation of Arterial and Venous Grafts with Intraoperative Flowmeter Techniques in Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting Operations

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the coronary artery bypass grafts with Transit Time Flowmeter (TTFM). Material and Methods: Fifty-nine patients who were scheduled for coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery were included in the study. Coronary artery bypass anastomoses were performed using the left internal mammary artery (LIMA) and saphenous vein. At the end of the cardiopulmonary bypass, graft flow (ml/min), pulsatility index (PI), flow curve and diastolic filling percentage (DF%) of each graft were assessed with TTFM. Results: Mean graft number of the patients was 3.25±0.8. We assessed the patency of a total of 187 grafts using TTFM. Highest mean flow was 55.5 ml/min in aorta-RCA grafts and lowest mean flow was 37.6 ml/min in aorta-diagonal grafts. Revision was required for two grafts (3.38%) in two patients based on inadequate TTFM findings. Conclusion: Transit time flowmeter is an important technique that provides the detection of technical errors during surgery. With the detection of graft failure intraoperatively, revision of the graft and restoration of blood flow could be performed.