Off-pump Techniques of Surgical Myocardial Revascularization.

BACKGROUND: Before the advent of CABG, standardized in the late '60s by Favaloro and Effler, patients with myocardial ischemia were treated with indirect methods and Off--pump procedures to achieve myocardial revascularization have been quite heterogeneous in the past.

METHODS & RESULTS: Indirect revascularization such as Periaortic nerve plexus interruption, Vineberg operation, Sen procedure, TMR Laser and stem cell transplantation represented some of the way to obtain a revascularization in the past period. Direct revascularization represents nowadays the most used technique in order to obtain a blood supply to ischemic heart. Off-pump coronary surgery are used, with an endless debate between the advantages and the disadvantages of on-pump versus off-pump coronary surgery.

CONCLUSION: The debate about the advantages and disadvantages of on-pump versus off-pump coronary surgery seems to be an endless story.