CORONARY-ARTERY REVASCULARIZATION CONCOMITANT WITH VASCULAR-SURGERY

Patients with vascular disease and coronary disease are usually treate d initially by coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), and vascular su rgery is generally performed later, In this study we assessed the feas ibility of combined CABG and vascular surgery in a single operation, B etween 1988 and 1995, 16 patients received combined operations for vas cular and cardiac lesions and the clinical results were assessed, Ther e were no operative or hospital deaths, The mean time for operation wa s 421 min and the duration of the stay in the intensive care unit (ICU ) was a mean of 3.6 days, In one patient with an ischemic left leg, th e left internal thoracic artery (ITA) had become a collateral source o f the ischemic leg, and the need for preoperative angiography of the I TA ire such patients was indicated, The combined operation clearly tak es longer than either vascular surgery or CABG alone, but the length o f the postoperative intensive care unit stay was essentially the same as that after a single operation and the patient was still managed saf ely after the combined operation, In patients requiring both operation s, the combined procedure therefore appears to be safe and to have a g ood clinical outcome.