The radial artery like internal thoracic artery is one of the most popular conduits used for coronary artery bypass grafting. As it is a pedicled graft it has a tendency to rotation and the effect of rotation of the radial artery on flow is not exactly known. By this aim we tested the effect of rotation on flow in an in-vivo setting. Between June and July 2000 10 patients undergoing isolated coronary bypass operation were entered into the study. The radial arteries were anastomosed to the aorta before venous cannulation. All of the radial arteries were 15 cm long. The distance between the proximal anastomosis and the distal end of the artery was kept constant throughout the study. Statistical analyses were performed using repeated measures of Anova. Statistical significance was set at p<0.05. Flow through the radial artery was measured for rotations of 0, 180, 360, and 720 degrees and was found to be 214 ± 25 ml, 209 ± 20 ml, 208 ± 23 ml and 181 ± 24 ml, respectively. For rotations of 360 degrees or less, the flow did not change (p>0.05). However, for rotations of 720 degrees the flow significantly reduced (p<0.001). The radial artery, beyond its other properties is an excellent conduit for its tolerance to rotation as much as 360 degrees.

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