Off-pump coronary artery surgery with the Coronéo Cor-Vasc stabilizing device: clinical experience of 141 patients.

Objectives: Numerous devices have been successfully introduced in off-pump coronary artery bypass graft (OPCABG) surgery, most of them being disposable tools based on suction stabilization. Coronéo Cor-Vasc is a reusable system combining suction positioning with compression stabilization. The purpose of this study was to analyze our experience in OPCABG with the Cor-Vasc system.
Methods: Between March 2001 and May 2008, 141 patients (age = 71.1 +/- 7.5 years) underwent OPCABG surgery using the Cor-Vasc system, representing 6.3% of the case volume of isolated coronary artery bypass graft surgery in the same period. Eighty-eight patients (62.4%) underwent surgery on an urgent basis. In 95 patients (67.4%), the OPCABG option was selected after finding a diseased ascending aorta at intraoperative epiaortic ultrasound.
Results: Among 334 anastomoses (mean = 2.4 +/- 1 per patient), 242 (95 patients) were fashioned with bilateral and 54 (46 patients) with single internal thoracic artery, respectively. In 89.4 and 73% of patients, a complete and a total arterial myocardial revascularization was achieved, respectively. There were two strokes (1.4%) and two myocardial infarctions (1.4%). Two patients died in the hospital (1.4%). Median ICU and in-hospital length of stay were 31.2 h and 10 days, respectively.
Conclusion: In our experience, the use of the Cor-Vasc system, including the device-learning curve, was associated with low mortality and morbidity indexes in an aged population with a high risk of stroke. The system appeared to be sufficiently versatile and potentially cost-effective when compared with disposable devices.