SIMULATION OF AORTO CORONARY BYPASS ANASTOMOSES FLOW CONDITIONS USING DISTENSIBLE TUBING AND A PULSATILE PUMP.

Coronary bypass surgery has come to be a very frequently performed operation in order to provide adequate perfusion to an ischemic myocardium. The surgical technique involves using a synthetic graft or saphenous vein to create a conduit to bypass a site of severe stenosis. The conduit is anastomosed proximally to the ascending aorta, and distally to a site on a coronary artery just distal to the location of the stenosis. The effect of the geometry of these anastomoses on the characteristics of the flow through the anastomoses has not been studied to the authors' knowledge. Thus the objective of this paper was to report on the flow visualization patterns existing at the anastomosis as a fluid, with the properties of blood, is pumped, using a pulsatile pump, through the anastomoses created using distensible tubing.