Background: With increasing incidence of coronary artery disease (CAD) in Saudi Arabia and its
fatal co-morbidity, this has resulted in a more complex pool of cases referred to cardiac surgeons.
In selected cases, achieving optimal revascularization of diffuse CAD necessitates adjunctive techniques
such as coronary endarterectomy (CE). The aim of our study is to evaluate the early mortality
and post-operative morbidity related to CE. Method: Retrospective study from Jan 2009 to
Dec 2010. Inclusion of 186 patients: 38 patients had CABG with CE and 148 patients had CABG
alone. Results: Pre-operative percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was higher in the CE with
CABG group (25.8%) compared with CABG alone (8.9%) (p = 0.009). Intra-operative data showed a
higher mean cardiopulmonary bypass time (CBT) of 160 minutes and a mean cross-clamp time
(XCT) of 109 minutes in the CE with CABG, compared to a mean CBT of 129 minutes and a mean
XCT of 87 minutes in the CABG alone group (p = 0.001). The most common vessel endarterectomized
was left anterior descending artery (LAD) (47%) followed by right coronary artery (RCA) (22%).
Post-operatively, the mortality amongst the CE with CABG group (7.9%) was higher than CABG
only group (1.4%), however it wasn’t statistically significant (p = 0.06). With regards to morbidity,
hemodynamic instability requiring intra aortic balloon pump (HIR-IABP) was higher in the CE
with CABG group (10.5%) compared to the CABG only group (1.4%) (p = 0.018). Conclusion: Our
study showed that CE when combined with CABG wasn’t associated with a higher mortality rate
when compared with CABG alone. |
