Bern, Switzerland - The first successful use of a sutureless mechanical anastomosis device in a human will be published in the research letters of the March 24, 2001 issue of the Lancet. The letter was fast-tracked by Lancet and is available on their website today.

A team from University Hospital in Bern, Switzerland, led by Dr Friedrich Eckstein, used the device in a 61-year-old patient with acute angina undergoing a triple bypass. The saphenous vein and distal right coronary artery were anastomosed with the coronary-artery connector device, the other two anastomoses were performed manually. The procedure was performed in November 2000, and the patient was discharged from hospital 9 days after surgery.

Developed by the St Jude Medical Anastomotic Technology Group, the device had been used in autologous-vein to coronary-artery anastomoses and femorofemoral bypass in dogs.

The connector system is a balloon-expandable stainless steel connector mounted on a delivery device. The connector has two sets of fingers. The external fingers secure the vein graft, and the internal fingers grasp the internal lumen of the artery. The anastomosis is created when the delivery catheter is pressurized. This simultaneously expands the connector as the catheter reduces in length, thereby compressing the vein graft to the coronary artery and creating a hemostatic seal. The device produces an anastomosis on par with hand-suturing in less time and with less training.

Sources

1.Eckstein FS, Bonilla LF, Meyer B, et al. Sutureless mechanical anastomosis of a saphenous vein graft to a coronary artery with a new connector device. Lancet 2001; 357(9260):933-4.

Laurent Castellucci laurent@conceptis.com

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