The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Vol 39, 116-124, Copyright © 1985 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons
Emergency coronary artery bypass graft surgery for threatened acute myocardial infarction related to coronary artery catheterization
AJ Roberts, RS Faro, MR Rubin, CJ Pepine, RL Feldman, DW Ellison, J LoPresti, ED Staples, DG Knauf and JA Alexander
In 20 patients undergoing cardiac catheterization, usually involving
balloon-catheter dilation or streptokinase infusion, catheter-induced
coronary artery intimal damage resulted in severe chest pain,
electrocardiographic evidence of obstruction or dissection of a major
coronary artery. These patients were surgically revascularized within 8
hours after the onset of the acute chest pain syndrome. Our experience with
pharmacological and catheter-related manipulations to improve coronary
blood flow after the ischemic episode but before operation suggested that
the additional time spent in the catheterization laboratory was worthwhile.
The injured coronary artery was the left anterior descending in 10
patients, the right in 8, the left main in 1 patient, and an obtuse
marginal branch of the circumflex in 1. The average number of grafts per
patient was 2.5; only 6 patients had single bypass grafts. In 5 patients,
intraaortic balloon pumping was used either preoperatively or
postoperatively. Inotropic support was used postoperatively in 5 patients,
and 7 patients received lidocaine for ventricular irritability. Abnormal
elevation of the serum isoenzyme of creatine kinase (CK-MB) was seen in 8
patients, and new Q waves were noted in 4 patients; 3 of these 4 patients
with new Q waves also had abnormal serum CK-MB levels. Global ejection
fraction obtained by the equilibrium-gated blood pool scan postoperatively
was 60 +/- 3%, which was similar to the 62 +/- 3% obtained from the
contrast-determined ventriculogram done preoperatively prior to the
catheter-related injury. There were no early or late deaths, but morbidity
was much higher in the group who had emergency coronary artery bypass
grafting (CABG) compared with those who had elective CABG.(ABSTRACT
TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)