Value and results of coronary surgery before the repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm

Seventeen polyarteriosclerotic patients underwent coronary bypass surgery before repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm between December 1979 and November 1988 in the Cardiovascular Surgical Department of the Pitié Hospital. Sixteen patients had triple vessel disease and 1 patient had single vessel disease but with mitro-aortic valvular disease. The abdominal aortic aneurysm was asymptomatic in 9 cases. The diameter of the aneurysm was over 5 cm in all patients. The average time between the two operations was 6.3 +/- 5.4 months. One myocardial infarction was observed following the coronary bypass surgery. There were no complications related to the coronary artery disease or operative deaths after repair of the abdominal aortic aneurysm. Two late deaths occurred, one due to an aortoduodenal fistula and the other to extra cardiovascular causes. One patient underwent femoro-popliteal bypass surgery 4 years after repair of the aortic aneurysm. One patient had successful percutaneous transluminal angioplasty of an aorto-coronary venous bypass graft 8 years after its implantation. All the other patients are asymptomatic from the coronary and peripheral arterial points of view. The 7 year survival was 85.7 +/- 9.4 per cent. These results seem to justify immediate and late preventive myocardial revascularisation in patients with coronary artery disease requiring surgery prior to repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm.