SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS AND PROCEDURES FOR STABILIZING THE BEATING HEART DURING CORONARY ARTERY BYPASS GRAFT SURGERY

摘要

The invention is methods and devices which a surgeon may use to stabilize the beatingheart during a surgical procedure on the heart. Pursuant to the invention, a stabilizing deviceis introduced through an opening in the chest and brought into contact with the beating heart.By contacting the heart with the device and by exerting a stabilizing force on the device, themotion of the heart caused by the contraction of the heart muscles is effectively eliminated suchthat the heart is stabilized and the site of the surgery moves only minimally if at all. Typically,in separate steps, the surgeon contacts the heart with the stabilizing means, assesses the degreeof movement of the anastomosis site, and exerts a force on the stabilizing means such that thecontraction of the beating heart causes orgy minimal excess motion at the surgery site. By fixingthe position of the stabilizing means in a configuration where the motion of the beating heart iseffectively eliminated, the surgeon is able to stabilize the beating heart for the duration of theprocedure. The stabilizing means may be attached to a rigid support or may be attached to asemi-rigid support which is rendered motionless mechanically, chemically, or by humanintervention. In certain preferred embodiments, the stabilizing means is affixed to a semi-rigidsupport which is caused to become rigid, by any of a variety of techniques, such that theposition of the stabilizing means becomes fixed by the support, and the heart remainssubstantially motionless for the duration of the procedure.