Coronary artery spasm and perioperative cardiac arrest.

There has been increasing interest in coronary artery spasm as etiopathogenic mechanism for various syndromes associated with myocardial ischemia. A case with documented organic coronary artery disease is presented, in which coronary artery spasm was the probable cause of intraoperative and early postoperative cardiac arrest. We recommend that coronary spasm be considered in the differential diagnosis of perioperative cardiac arrest.