On-pump beating-heart coronary artery bypass grafting: a literature review

Coronary artery bypass grafting techniques have been unchangeable for many years, whereas development and enhancement of myocardial protection methods in coronary bypass grafting for patients with ischemic heart disease are still actual issues of current coronary surgery. Coronary artery bypass grafting techniques include the traditional/conventional technique with cardiopulmonary bypass, aortic cross-clamping and cardioplegia, off-pump and on-pump beating heart coronary artery bypass grafting. Coronary artery bypass grafting with cardiopulmonary bypass and cardioplegia remains the most common method of coronary revascularization. However the cardiac arrest inevitably leads to global cardiac ischemia, and current cardioplegias do not prevent ischemic damage to the myocardium in all cases, especially in high-risk surgical patients. Off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting allows preventing global myocardial ischemia (due to the constant native coronary blood-flow) and avoiding possible negative consequences of cardiopulmonary bypass use. The main limitations of this technique are associated with high risk of hemodynamic instability due to low cardiac output and systolic output caused by target arteries exposition. On-pump beating heart technique is a reasonable compromise between conventional on-pump coronary artery bypass grafting, cardioplegia and off-pump procedure. It is a safe and effective technique with outcomes that are equivalent or superior to the outcomes reported for conventional coronary artery bypass grafting in patients with unstable hemodynamics, low left ventricular ejection fraction and in high-risk patients. The literature review presents the results of on-pump beating heart coronary artery bypass grafting.