Training models for coronary surgery.

This paper reviews currently used training models for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Training models for CABG are extremely helpful not only for training surgical techniques, but also for the evaluation of new technologies and for research on bypass graft pathophysiology. Wet-lab models serve as training platforms for surgical residents and allow the evaluation of new technology (e.g., robotically enhanced CABG). The right coronary artery to left anterior descending artery model on the slaughterhouse pig heart is easily available, cheap, and effective. In vivo animal models for CABG are much more sophisticated and cost intensive. Pigs and dogs are the most commonly used animals for CABG training. Offpump CABG techniques, totally endoscopic CABG, endoscopic gastroepiploic artery harvesting, and axillocoronary bypass grafting have been evaluated in animal models.