Technology to Assess Intraoperative Graft Patency

Teresa M. Kieser, MD, PhD is a Cardiothoracic & Vascular (CVT) Surgeon, at the Libin Cardiovascular Institute, and Professor Emerita, University of Calgary. She was board certified in General Surgery in Canada and USA in 1985 and in CVT Surgery in 1986. Prior to this, military service (Captain, Canadian Armed Forces) included two years of Cardiology (1977-1979) with Dr. Gerald M. FitzGibbon (of ‘A, B, & O Graft Patency’ Classification). Immediately upon completion of residency and Fellowships (2), in Jan 1988 she incepted the CVT Surgery Program at Foothills Medical Centre, University of Calgary and performed the first heart surgery Sept 12, 1988. Her areas of interest include total arterial bypass grafting, (predominantly bilateral internal mammary arteries [BIMA]), skeletonization with harmonic technology, (harmonic scalpel [HS]) and intraoperative graft assessment (IOGA) with: transit-time flow measurement (TTFM) since April 2003 (21 years) on 99.7% of bypass grafts of 1,908 coronary surgery patients, and epicardial ultrasound (ECUS) since July 2014 (~10 years) on 98% of grafts of 969 patients, in both on and off-pump surgery.