A simple method to prevent internal thoracic artery tension: a single pericardio-thoracic suture technique.

Tension on the internal mammary artery is a major risk for anastomosis in patients with severe emphysematous lungs. For this reason, it can be necessary to harvest the internal thoracic artery to its origin, to skeletonize it, or as a last resort to use it as a free graft. Sometimes, these maneuvers cannot be enough to solve the problem. A simple suture technique to hang up the pericardium to the chest wall is described that eliminates herniation of emphysematous lungs across mediastinum and reduces tension on the left internal mammary artery.