TECHNIQUE FOR VENTRICULAR WRAPPING IN EXPERIMENTAL DYNAMIC CARDIOMYOPLASTY

Cardiomyoplasty is a wrapping of an electrostimulated latissimus dorsi muscle flap around the heart for substitution and/or reinforcement. T he surgical technique for reproducible cardiomyoplasties in the goat m odel is presented. The methods combine the direction of wrapping (cloc kwise, counter-clockwise) and the orientation of muscle fibers. A card iomyoplasty model using right and left latissimus dorsi or left latiss imus dorsi and pectoralis major as well as a split muscle technique ar e illustrated.