The radial artery is usually harvested as a pedicle with surrounding veins, perivascular fat, and areolar tissue. We describe an alternative technique of skeletonization of the radial artery and its potential advantages over the pedicled technique.

In this review, we discuss human factors research in cardiac surgery and other medical domains. We describe a systems approach to understanding human factors in cardiac surgery and summarize the lessons that have been learned about critical incident and near-miss reporting in other high technology industries that are pertinent to this field.