Use of saphenous vein graft in axillary artery cannulation

Axillary artery cannulation for cardiopulmonary bypass is becoming increasingly used for surgery of aortic dissections for reoperations and extensively diseased ascending aortas. This can be achieved either directly or with a graft. We describe a case with a repair of chronic type A dissection in which axillary cannulation was achieved by placing the arterial cannula into a saphenous vein graft that had been anastomosed end-to-side to the axillary artery. This provides a natural, inexpensive, readily available, and more hemostatic alternative to the use of prosthetic grafts. (C) 2004 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons.