Coronary endarterectomy and bypass grafting without cardiopulmonary bypass

We prospectively analyzed patients who underwent simultaneous off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting and endarterectomy between March 1, 1997 and February 28, 2002. The incidence of perioperative myocardial infarction, need for inotropic support, morbidity, long-time functional class, and mortality were evaluated.Nine endarterectomies were performed in eight patients, more frequently in the right coronary artery. Dopamine was used in four patients. One perioperative myocardial infarction (12.5%) occurred. No deaths occurred and all patients are now functional class I. Tests for ischemia have been negative in all patients.Coronary endarterectomy is an alternative procedure that has little morbidity and enables complete myocardial revascularization without cardiopulmonary bypass.     

Coronary artery revascularization without cardiopulmonary bypass

At the Texas Heart Institute between October 1969 and August 1983, there were 191 single bypass procedures performed without pump oxygenator support. These cases have been divided into two groups: Group I (160 patients) represents the time period from October 1969 through December 1981 and includes our experience with single vessel left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery bypass without pump oxygenator support; Group II (31 patients) represents the period between January 1982 and August 1983 and includes our initial operative experience in patients with failed percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA). Of 145 primary operations in Group I patients, 113 were single bypasses to the right coronary artery with a postoperative infarction rate of 3.5% (4/113). Single bypass to the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery in 32 patients who underwent operation early in the series was associated with a postoperative infarction rate of 18.7% (6/32) and is no longer performed without pump oxygenator support. Fifteen patients had previous coronary bypass operations and underwent single bypass without pump as a second procedure. Postoperative infarction rate in this redo group was 6.6% (1/15). Long-term follow-up data was obtained on all patients from 1 to 11 years after surgery (mean follow-up, 4 years). Four late cardiac deaths occurred at 2,3,4 and 7 years in the primary operation group (3.5%) 4/113. One late death occurred at 7 years in the redo group (6.6%) 1/15. In Group II, failed PTCA accounted for 39% of the 31 patients who underwent single right bypass without pump support; there were no perioperative infarctions and one death. Coronary bypass can be safely and effectively employed without pump oxygenator support if performed expeditiously and limited to right coronary lesions which have an adequate distal vessel. This technique has become more useful with the advent of attempted PTCA for single coronary lesions.     

Coronary artery bypass grafting without cardiopulmonary bypass in 200 patients

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the efficacy of off pump coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), results in the initial consecutive 200 patients were reviewed. METHODS: Between October 1996 and December 1999, 200 patients underwent CABG without cardiopulmonary bypass. There were 146 men and 54 women aged from 27 to 89 years (mean 68 years). Single, double, triple and left main disease were noted in 94, 55, 33 and 18 patients, respectively, with a mean ejection fraction of 51%. Preoperative complications were previous stroke in 34 patients, chronic renal failure in 22 patients, previous CABG in 18 patients, and aortoiliac aneurysm or occlusive disease in 14 patients. Fifty-five patients (28%) were 75 years or older. Surgical approach was made through a midsternal incision including lower half small sternotomy in 105 patients, left anterior small thoracotomy in 92 and small epigastric incision (gastroepiploic-right coronary anastomosis) in 3. Mean number of distal anastomoses was 1.3 (range 1-4). Anastomosis was performed in 189 left anterior descending, 13 diagonal, 27 circumflex and 41 right coronary arteries. The conduits were 174 internal thoracic, 10 internal thoracic-inferior epigastric composite, 22 right gastroepiploic and 5 radial arteries, and 50 saphenous vein grafts. Four patients underwent combined off pump CABG and transmyocardial laser revascularization, and 36 patients underwent hybrid (off pump CABG and angioplasty) revascularization. RESULTS: Four patients (2.0%) died in the hospital due to intestinal necrosis in 2 patients, postoperative aortic dissection in one, and multiorgan failure with stroke in one. No serious ventricular tachyarrhythmia or use of intraaortic balloon pump occurred. Perioperative myocardial infarction was noted in one patient. Stroke occurred in 4 patients (2.0%) but 3 patients recovered in a short period. Three-year survival and cardiac event free rate were 90.3% and 81.1% by the Kaplan-Meier method. Postoperative angiographic study showed excellent patent graft in 92% of grafts (192/209), stenosed (> or = 50%) graft in 5% (10/209) and occlusion in 3% (7/209). CONCLUSIONS: Off pump CABG can be performed safely and effectively in both high risk and low risk patients with coronary artery disease. Refinement of surgical technique and equipment will make this procedure more useful.     

Total arterial bypass operations with complete sternotomy in the awake patient

BACKGROUND: In minimally invasive coronary artery bypass surgery beating heart procedures and operations via limited incisions became more popular and are routinely performed in many centers. An additional approach to minimize general trauma is avoidance of general anesthesia endotracheal intubation. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between March and June 2001, 14 spontaneously breathing patients underwent coronary artery bypass grafting on the beating heart without general anesthesia. Intra- and postoperative analgesia management was performed using continuous epidural infusion of local anesthetics at level Th2-Th3. Single (n = 8) as well as double (n = 5) and triple (n = 1) bypass grafting was performed with the off pump technique. Surgical access to the chest cavity was created via partial (n = 8) or complete sternotomy (n = 6). RESULTS: Twelve patients remained awake throughout the procedure; 2 patients required secondary intubation due to incomplete sensory block and pneumothorax. Operating time was 94 +/- 18 minutes. Intermediate care monitoring time amounted to 4.8 +/- 0.6 hours. No surgery-related complications or myocardial infarction occurred. Postoperative angiography reviewed good graft function in all patients. CONCLUSION: Our preliminary experience shows that complete surgical revascularization is safe and feasible without endotracheal intubation and general anesthesia. Thus, invasiveness in cardiac surgery is further reduced with less need for intensive care unit monitoring enabling faster mobilization and recovery.     

Coronary vascular stunning in bypass operations during reperfusion and treatment with nitroglycerin

OBJECTIVE: A compromised blood flow after ischemia and reperfusion caused by an increased coronary artery resistance can additionally jeopardize the recovery of myocytes. During routine bypass operations, we investigated the effect of various nitroglycerin doses on elevated coronary resistance before and after ischemia and after a defined reperfusion period. METHODS: 46 patients with a low-risk profile scheduled for routine coronary artery bypass grafting were investigated. During normothermic total extracorporeal circulation, the completely relieved and fibrillating heart was completely isolated from the systemic circulation and the coronary artery system was perfused at 300 ml/min and flow-controlled. The perfusion pressures were monitored continuously. This protocol was performed at three time points: I. Control (ctr) = 10 minutes after institution of extracorporeal circulation, II. Early reperfusion (early rep) = immediately after an myocardial ischemia of 46 +/- 8 minutes, and III. Late reperfusion (late rep) = after a reperfusion period of 25 +/- 4.5 minutes. In 12 randomly chosen patients in a second step, 3 microg per kg heart weight per min of nitroglycerin (low-dose NTG) was added to the perfusate at time points I and III. In another 12 patients, we applied a bolus injection of 2 mg into the aortic root instead of low-dose NTG. RESULTS: Compared to ctr, vascular resistance had decreased at early rep by 17% (0 - 48%) (p < 0.005). At late rep, resistance had increased by 46% (5 - 94%) (p < 0.001) compared to early rep and by 23% (3 - 36%) (p < 0.005) compared to ctr. Resistances had risen in particular in patients with hypertension. Application of low-dose NTG lowered resistances by 5% (0-8%) (non-significant) at ctr, and by 6% (0 - 11%) (non-significant) at late rep. Bolus NTG decreased resistances at ctr by 11% (2 - 21%) (p < 0.05) and at late rep by 21% (6 - 48%) (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: In routine heart surgery, coronary vascular constriction is regularly present during postischemic reperfusion despite myocardial protection measures. NTG abolishes this coronary vascular stunning only in part if systemically applicable dosages are given. High-dose intracoronary application of NTG relieves the coronary vasoconstriction completely, but the dosages needed cannot be applied systemically. In this study, vasoconstriction after reperfusion was markedly increased in patients with hypertension.     

非体外循环下“Y”型全动脉桥的冠状动脉旁路移植术

目的 :总结非体外循环下 (off pump)应用左侧乳内动脉与桡动脉“Y”型动脉桥 (Y arterialgraft)冠状动脉旁路移植术的临床经验。方法 :2 0 0 2年 9月至 2 0 0 4年 1月连续对 4 2例冠心病患者行非体外循环下“Y”型全动脉桥的冠状动脉旁路移植术 (YAG OPCABG)。男性 31例 ,女性 11例 ,年龄 (6 6 5±8 4 )岁。手术在全麻非体外循环心脏跳动下进行 ,所有患者均在第三肋间左心耳处行桡动脉与左侧乳内动脉 (LIMA)的“Y”型端侧吻合 ,LIMA与前降支 (LAD)吻合而桡动脉与对角支或钝缘支及后降支或左心室后侧支序贯吻合。应用瞬时血流测定仪测定血管内流量。结果 :全组无死亡 ,无围手术期心肌梗死。 1例后降支行再吻合 ,其余吻合口均通畅并有较好的流量及搏动指数。随访 2～ 17个月 ,生活质量好。结论 :YAG OPCABG具有创伤小 ,全动脉的优点 ,具有良好血流的LLMA并不能影响“Y”桥分支血流量 ,可取得良好的近期临床效果。     

瓣膜置换并非计划冠状动脉搭桥术(附7例报告)

报告7例患者在瓣膜置换同时行非计划冠状动脉搭桥术(coronaryarterybypassgraft,CABG)。除1例死亡外,其余6例均完全康复。根据本组资料,认为虽然应该尽量避免非计划CABG,但其仍不失为特殊情况下挽救患者生命的有效手段。     

Coronary artery bypass grafting in octogenarians--outcome with and without extracorporeal circulation

Octogenarians are increasingly considered for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), but still represent a high-risk patient group with increased mortality and morbidity. In recent years off-pump surgery has been successfully established in CABG. The avoidance of extracorporeal circulation (ECC) seems to be of particular benefit for this patient group. We retrospectively analyzed our experience with CABG surgery with and without ECC in octogenarians to define the potential benefit of these different approaches in this high-risk group of patients. We analyzed the outcome after isolated CABG of 344 consecutive patients (219 male, 125 female, age: 82 +/- 2.4 years) who were aged 80 or older. Patients were divided into two groups according to the use of ECC. The on-pump group consisted of 237 patients (151 male, 86 female, 82 +/- 2.8 years) and the off-pump group consisted of 107 patients (68 male, 39 female, 82 +/- 1.9 years). The predicted EuroSCORE and EuroSCORE mortality risk were similar for both patient groups. The overall hospital mortality rate was 5.5 % (n = 17): 14 patients (5.9 %) in the on-pump group (n = 237, 100 %) and five patients (4.6 %) in the off-pump group (n = 107, 100 %). The average number of grafts in the on-pump group was 2.8 +/- 0.4 and it was 2.4 +/- 0.6 in the off-pump group ( P = 0.05). Morbidity was comparable in both groups. Significant variables in multivariate regression were preoperative atrial fibrillation ( P = 0.03; RR = 2.7), COPD ( P = 0.0001; RR = 6.5) and prolonged intubation ( P = 0.005; RR = 4.1). Isolated CABG in octogenarians can be performed with good clinical results, although a substantial mortality remains. The results of coronary surgery in this patient group with and without ECC are comparable with respect to mortality and morbidity.     

Coronary artery bypass surgery in nonagenarians.

As the number of nonagenarians increases yearly in the United States, surgeons will be asked more often to evaluate the possibility of intervention for coronary artery disease in this age group. The purpose of this study is to document experience with patients 90 years of age or older in order to determine whether coronary artery bypass grafting surgery is justified. Eleven patients aged 90 years or more underwent cardiac surgery for symptomatic coronary artery disease refractory to medical management between January 1, 1987, and December 31, 1996. All patients were in NYHA Class IV preoperatively. In-hospital death occurred in two patients (18%). In-hospital morbidity occurred in all patients (100%) including seven cardiac, four respiratory, two neurologic, and one infectious. All survivors left the hospital symptomatically improved. The mean length of stay was 28 days. Four patients died at a mean of 2 years and 2 months postoperatively. Five patients remain alive at a mean of 1 year and 7 months. Coronary artery bypass grafting in nonagenarians can be performed successfully in selected cases. However, increased mortality and morbidity rates and length of stay are associated with this age group. For survivors, the quality of life is improved and the projected life expectancy restored.