Perioperative cardiac complications of surgical repair of infrarenal aortic aneurysms.

From 1985 to 1987, 261 patients (241 male, 20 female; mean age 66.5 years, range 38-90 years) were hospitalized for elective repair of infrarenal aortic aneurysms. One-hundred forty seven patients (56%) had coronary artery disease, attested to by past history of myocardial infarction or angina pectoris, electrocardiographic signs at rest, or abnormalities of dipyridamole thallium scintigraphy (performed in 72 patients). Ten patients had coronary arteriography and one patient then underwent aortocoronary bypass. Only two patients were not offered operation. All patients operated on had perioperative monitoring using Swan-Ganz catheters. Forty-five patients (17.5%) had a total of 62 postoperative events related to coronary artery disease. These included 40 cases of myocardial ischemia (15%), 16 cases of left heart failure (6%), and six myocardial infarctions (2%). There were nine (3.4%) postoperative deaths, four of which were due to cardiac causes (1.5%). In spite of the frequency of preexisting coronary artery disease and of intra- or postoperative myocardial ischemia, surgical repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm was not responsible for increased perioperative cardiac morbidity or mortality. In this population of aged patients, abdominal aortic aneurysm repair does not necessitate extending the indications for preoperative coronary arteriography or aortocoronary bypass.