Manual coronary endarterectomy. Clinical experience in 315 patients.

From July, 1970, to December, 1973, manual endarterectomies were performed on 330 coronary arteries in 315 patients. The procedures were performed on either an elective or nonelective basis. The over-all hospital mortality rate was 1.27 per cent. Postoperative myocardial infarction occurred in 4.8 per cent of these patients. Postoperative catheterization was performed on 186 endarterectomized arteries; the average time of postoperative catheterization was 13.1 months after surgery. The over-all patency rate was 76.3 per cent. This experience suggests that endarterectomy is a safe and useful adjunct to saphenous vein bypass grafting procedures when used in a restricted fashion as detailed in this presentation.