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J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2004;127:1825-1827
© 2004 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery

Brief communication

Anatomic variations of the radial artery: Significance when harvesting for coronary artery bypass grafting

^a Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, North Shore Medical Center, Salem, Mass, USA
^b Division of Cardiac Surgery, Department of Surgery, Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, Mass, USA

Received for publication October 29, 2003; accepted for publication November 3, 2003.

^* Address for reprints: Abdallah Alameddine, MD, PO Box 1139, Melrose, MA 02176, USA
susan.parent@bhs.org

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

Over the past decade, the radial artery (RA) has gained wide acceptance as a useful vascular conduit for coronary artery bypass grafting with a very good midterm patency rate.

In addition to preoperative assessments of the ulnar artery collateral blood supply, it is crucial to understand the anatomic details of the RA harvesting site to avoid neurovascular complications of the forearm. Because anatomic variations of the RA in the arm are common in human subjects,^1,2 it is more likely that these complications are even higher in frequency.³ We have encountered a left arm duplication of the RA where this vessel runs above the deep fascia in the proximal and mid forearm, and its course is somewhat more medial than when the RA is located beneath the deep fascia. This vessel is called the superficial RA. We discuss the anatomic findings, and on the basis of our observation in this case, we recommend that the incision should be slightly modified and should be placed more medially along the medial border of the flexor carpi radialis muscle.

Anatomic findings

The anatomic variation was discovered intraoperatively when an accessory RA branch (or duplication) was found. We designated this anatomic variation as the RA accessory because of its significant size. The superficial branch RA (Figure . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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