Emergency coronary artery bypass surgery after failed percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty

Coronary complications caused by percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) may necessitate emergency coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). In 1994-1998, 132 patients (1.5% of the patients registered in the Danish PTCA registry) underwent CABG within 24 h because of angioplasty complications. We reviewed the files of 86 patients who had emergency operations within 6 h and found that 35% suffered from I-vessel disease. Fifty-eight percent were taken directly to the operating room from the cardiovascular laboratory, and 13% were given preoperative cardiovascular resuscitation. The vessels most frequently injured were the right coronary artery and the left anterior descending branch (LAD). The patients received a mean of 2.4 coronary bypasses each. Forty-three percent of the patients: with lesions of the left main coronary artery and/or the LAD received a vein graft to the LAD. A perioperative Q-wave myocardial infarction developed in 51% of the patients. The in-hospital mortality rate was 12%. These results are inferior to those obtained after elective surgery. Local cardiothoracic backup is vital when PTCA is performed in an unselected patient group.