Association Between Endoscopic vs Open Vein-Graft Harvesting and Mortality, Wound Complications, and Cardiovascular Events in Patients Undergoing CABG Surgery

Abstract

In the mid-1990s, surgeons began using endoscopic vein-graft harvesting techniques as an alternative to large, incision-based open vein-graft harvesting to improve postoperative discomfort and incision-site complications.^1-3 The endoscopic vein-graft harvesting technique uses devices cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) based on substantial equivalence to devices currently in use without the need for clinical trials of the new device. The perceived advantages of endoscopic vein-graft harvesting led to widespread adoption of the technique, and the devices have been used in the majority of the more than 400 000 coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery procedures performed at US surgical centers each year.⁴