Porcelain aorta in coronary artery bypass graft operations: an alternative approach.

Porcelain aorta represents a serious condition for coronary artery bypass graft operations. Here we describe a simple technique to avoid any aortic manipulation during an off-pump coronary artery bypass graft procedure. The right internal thoracic artery is used as the source of blood inflow for single or sequential venous grafts. We have used this technique with good results in 5 elderly patients with eggshell aorta.