Complex coronary angioplasty in patients with prior coronary artery bypass surgery, in situations utilizing multiple coronary angioplasties, and in coronary occlusions.

Coronary artery bypass surgery not only provides symptomatic relief but also may prolong life in a significant percentage of patients. Repeat bypass surgery succeeds in providing symptomatic relief in a lesser number of patients, but it is associated with a higher morbidity and mortality than primary operations. Angioplasty, an interventional, therapeutic catheter technique, is applicable to a large number of patients who have undergone bypass surgery and who are sufficiently symptomatic to require consideration of another revascularization procedure. The gratifying results of successful lesion dilatation coupled with clinical improvement of the patient, the acceptable mortality and morbidity statistics, and the long-term symptomatic relief are comparable to those for repeat coronary bypass graft surgery. In addition, technologic advances in angioplasty equipment, as well as more knowledgeable interventionists, will enable more lesions to be successfully reached, traversed, and dilated with, it is hoped, a lower morbidity and mortality. We would estimate that 30 to 50 per cent of those patients requiring repeat revascularization operations today can undergo an angioplasty procedure with at least comparable clinical results and better morbidity and mortality statistics than those achieved with repeat bypass surgery. Selected patients underwent transluminal coronary angioplasty of varying combinations of arterial and/or vein graft stenoses. A multiple dilatation procedure was defined as successful when dilatation was achieved in all lesions in which it was attempted or when the considered-critical stenosis was dilated successfully and the patient was clinically improved. Angioplasty was successful in 93 per cent of all lesions in which it was attempted, and these successful dilatations produced a clinical improvement in 92 per cent of the patients. No complication whatsoever was experienced in 81 per cent of cases. The complications encountered included a 1.3 per cent mortality rate, a myocardial infarction rate of 6.9 per cent (3.0 per cent per lesion attempted), and an emergency surgery rate of 2.6 per cent (1.1 per cent per lesion attempted). Follow-up data show that a sustained clinical improvement was obtained in 96.8 per cent of the patients in whom the procedure was successful (with or without a repeat angioplasty). These data indicate that multiple coronary angioplasties can be performed during the same procedure, that clinical improvement can be achieved, and that the complication rate is acceptable.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)