No-Touch Harvesting in Off-Pump Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting With Sequential Saphenous Vein Grafting: A Single-Centre Prospective Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract Background: The main graft material for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is the combination of the internal mammary artery and great saphenous vein. The patency rate of vein grafts is considered not ideal; more studies support that the no-touch (NT) procedure can improve the patency rate of vein grafts. However, it is not clear that the NT technology is used in the sequential saphenous vein grafting during off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery. This study explored whether the NT technique is as safe and effective as the conventional technique in off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery using sequential vein grafts.Methods: This was a prospective single-centre randomized controlled clinical trial. A total of 200 patients undergoing off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting in the sequential saphenous graft were randomly assigned to two groups: the no-touch (NT) and conventional (CON) groups. Perioperative and postoperative data were collected during the hospital stay. The occlusion of sequential grafts was measured by cardiac computed tomography angiography (CCTA) 3 months post CABG. Leg wound complications were followed up. The mean diameter of sequential grafts for the first 100 patients was measured using CCTA 3 months after the operation.Results: The primary endpoint was that there was no difference in occlusion of sequential venous grafts between the two groups (NT: 9/180 (4.4%), CON: 5/194 (1.5%), p=0.22). Similarly, there were no differences in composite clinical events (NT: 2/91 (2.2%), CON: 1/96 (1.0%), p=0.96). There was no difference in leg wound complications between the two groups (NT: 8/91 (8.8%), CON: 4/96 (4.2%), p=0.20). However, there was a significant difference in the average diameter of sequential grafts between the two groups (NT: (2.98±0.42), CON: (3.26±0.51), p=0.005).Conclusions: The early clinical results suggest that the NT technique is as safe and effective as the conventional technique in sequential grafting in off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery. The sequential graft early expansion in the NT technique is not as pronounced as that in the conventional technique, which may have a long-term protective effect on the grafts.Trial Registration: Registered 1 November 2018, ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03729531, http://www.clinicaltrials.gov