Left Internal Thoracic Artery Graft Assessment by Firefly Fluorescence Imaging for Robot-Assisted Minimally Invasive Direct Coronary Artery Bypass.

OBJECTIVE: The da Vinci Xi surgical system (Intuitive Surgical, Sunnyvale, CA, USA) cannot give tactile feedback to surgeons. This shortcoming may increase the risk of left internal thoracic artery (LITA) injury during its harvest. We utilized Firefly Fluorescence Imaging (Firefly) to assess LITA quality in robot-assisted minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass (R-MIDCAB).

METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed clinical records and intraoperative videos of 30 consecutive patients who underwent R-MIDCAB with LITA-left anterior descending (LAD) coronary bypass. All patients had post-harvest assessment of LITA blood flow by Firefly with 1 mL (2.5 mg/mL) of indocyanine green injection through a central line.

RESULTS: Twenty-seven of the patients were male, mean age was 67.7 ± 10.7 years. In post-harvest assessment performed before transection of the distal LITA, blood flow in LITA was well visualized in 28 patients. In the remaining 2 patients, 1 had dissection and the other had severe spasm of the LITA. Firefly was also useful for locating LITA and LAD and for assessing blood flow of the graft after anastomosis. Time required for each Firefly assessment was approximately 20 seconds. There were no side effects or complications due to Firefly intraoperatively and postoperatively. Twenty-six patients had postoperative coronary computed tomography; LITA patency rate was 100% (26/26).

CONCLUSION: Firefly is fast, simple, and effective for locating and assessing flow in LITA and LAD before and after anastomosis in R-MIDCAB.