The choice of the technique for harvesting and preparation of the radial artery for coronary artery bypass grafting.

At present coronary artery disease (CAD) is a most frequently occurring cause of the lethality and disability of patients. One of the basic methods for CAD treatment is coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Actuality of the problem of applying the radial artery (RA) for CABG is determined by the proven advantage of arterial grafts versus vein grafts in myocardial revascularization. Today the RA ranks second in frequency of using the arterial graft subsequently to the internal thoracic artery (ITA). The RA may be harvested by two techniques: skeletization and in a case with surrounding tissue. However, to this day there is no unanimous opinion as regards the advantages of one or another approach. Of importance is conduit conservation from the time of harvesting to implantation into the coronary artery position. Despite a great number of conservants offered for conservation before implantation, comparative analysis of their effect on the conduit endothelium was not carried out. The problem of the safety of the RA conduit also remains open to discussion.