Usefulness of intraoperative coronary angioplasty in aorto-coronary bypass surgery.

Seven patients underwent aorto-coronary bypass grafting combined with intraoperative transluminal coronary angioplasty (OTCA), because of multiple obliteration of the coronary arteries with poor distal run-off. The patients were all males with a mean age of 52.6 years. For OTCA, a SIMPSON-ROBERT vascular dilator system was used. Eight stenoses in seven patients, four in the left anterior descending artery (LAD) and three in the right coronary artery (RCA) were dilated by means of OTCA. In five patients the results were satisfactory but in two patients the procedures resulted in failure. Dilatation failed because of severe calcification of LAD in one case and, in the other, distal RCA was completely obstructed by a compressed atherosclerotic plaque at the bifurcation after the procedure. From these limited experiences we believe that OTCA might be a method of selection to treat the patients with coronary sclerosis with poor distal run-off.