Coagulation Technique for Remodeling Anastomosis Spaces in Bypass Surgery

Cerebrovascular bypass techniques are the current cornerstone methods to achieve cerebral revascularization for moyamoya disease or syndrome and select cases of vascular pathologies, such as intracranial atherosclerotic occlusive disease and complex aneurysms. Factors influencing bypass efficiency include graft patency, short temporary occlusion time, and precise anastomosis. On the basis of our senior author's vast experience with 1300 bypasses, we recommend performing the anastomosis with the minimal number of stitches as achievable to avoid stenosis of the artery's internal lumen that may occur with unnecessary, additional stitches, preserving patency. After completing the anastomosis, when a leak occurs between the sutures, cottonoid tamponade, hemostatic materials, or adding 1 or 2 sutures to the space is often enough to close the gap. However, additional suture placement can be difficult, which might cause stenosis of the anastomosis and reduce blood flow. In this video, we introduce a bipolar coagulation technique for remodeling the anastomosis orifices, as an alternative manner, when minor leakages occur between the knots (Video 1). We demonstrate this technique in an adult moyamoya disease patient who underwent a superficial temporal artery−to−middle cerebral artery bypass, in this case coagulation of the donor artery wall at the anastomosis made possible to adapt the edges of the donor artery precisely to the recipient artery wall by shrinking its redundancy between the stitches. The most important task is to coagulate the donor side orifice precisely with low-power bipolar coagulation and never coagulate the recipient artery. This coagulation technique is a simple alternative to stop further leakage, and it prevents placing an additional suture and reduces temporary occlusion time.