CALCIFIED ASCENDING AORTA AND CORONARY-ARTERY DISEASE

An elderly woman with severe coronary artery disease and calcified asc ending and transverse aorta had a left internal thoracic artery graft to the first marginal branch of the circumflex artery and a right inte rnal thoracic artery graft to the left anterior descending artery. It was performed using the ''no-touch'' technique to the ascending and tr ansverse aorta, cardiopulmonary bypass with an arterial inflow to the left common femoral artery, a beating, warm, and vented heart, and bra dycardia induced by a short-acting beta(1)-blocker. The latter two wer e used to decrease myocardial oxygen consumption and facilitate constr uction of the internal thoracic artery to coronary artery anastomoses.