The assessment of right internal thoracic artery's length adaptability as a conduit "in situ" for mammary coronary artery bypass grafting in patients having coronary artery disease

The description and application of a new method of estimating right internal thoracic artery's length adaptability as a conduit "in situ" for mammary coronary artery bypass grafting of patients with coronary artery disease is presented in the article According to the method, first bypass surgery's step is estimation of correlation of six intercostals space and sharp edge of the heart. Schemes and algorithm of using the method are given. Clinical examples demonstrated that these new signs allow to determine and optimize surgical approach on initial stages of the surgery.