Surgical treatment of acute myocardial infarction

In 1989 the following indications for surgical treatment of acute myocardial infarction are: (1) acute evolving myocardial infarction less than 6 h from onset, in patients in whom percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) or streptokinase (SK), depending on the coronary anatomy, has been unsuccessful; if single vessel disease, coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is unlikely; if multiple vessel disease, CABG is preferable to SK/PTCA unless a very major 'culprit' lesion can be identified with certainty; (2) postinfarction angina hours to days after a transmural myocardial infarction unyielding to maximal medical therapy and in patients with a coronary artery obstruction not amenable to PTCA; (3) occlusion of a coronary artery during cardiac catheterization that cannot be fixed by PTCA and/or SK; (4) occlusion of a coronary artery during PTCA causing hemodynamic obstruction and a threatened myocardium subtended by the obstructed coronary artery; (5) balloon-dependent patients in cardiogenic shock without mechanical defects who have adequate residual left ventricular function as determined by regional wall motion studies; (6) ventricular septal defect secondary to myocardial infarction unless there is terminal organ damage; (7) mitral valve replacement with coronary bypass for acute papillary muscle rupture; (8) semi-emergency cardiac transplantation, either with or without a mechanical bridge to transplant in young individuals (less than 50 years) who have suffered massive destruction of left ventricular myocardium by an acute coronary occlusion with or without recurring ventricular tachyarrhythmias. Ejection fraction in this clinical category is always under 0.20 and usually under 0.15.