Correlation of myocardial contraction band necrosis and vascular patency. A study of coronary artery bypass graft anastomoses at branch points.

Eleven patients who died within 1 week of operation and in whom saphenous vein bypass graft anastomoses were located at or extended across coronary artery branch points were studied at autopsy. New surgically introduced narrowings of greater than 75% in one branch of the 13 anastomoses studied were more frequent (six of eight) when the arteriotomy extended into a branch artery than when the arteriotomy ended proximal to the flow divider of the branch point (zero to five). Obstruction was most frequently caused by suture compression of the arterial lumen. In five of the six anastomoses, where one branch contained a significant new narrowing and the other did not, a striking difference in the severity of myocardial contraction band necrosis in the distribution of the two arteries was found. In each such case the severe necrosis was in the distribution of the patent branch artery and the obstructed branch had slight or trivial injury. The results are interpreted as showing that myocardium that has the potential for developing contraction band necrosis may not develop it if the reflow phase is suppressed.