Heart bypass artery harvesting methods put to the test in small pilot

This pilot study tests whether a larger trial comparing two methods of harvesting the left internal mammary artery (LIMA) for heart bypass surgery is feasible. About 35 adults having planned bypass surgery will be randomly assigned to either the skeletonized method (isolating the artery alone) or the standard non-skeletonized method (taking the artery with surrounding tissue). The study will measure how well patients can be recruited, how well surgeons follow the assigned technique, and whether follow-up data (including a CT scan at one year) can be collected successfully. This is a feasibility study, not designed to determine which method is better.