A 49-year-old man with impaired left ventricular function successfully underwent a one-stage operation of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and replacement of infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). Left ventricular ejection fraction, left ventricular end-diastolic and mean pulmonary artery pressures were 24%, 25mmHg and 33mmHg, respectively. The AAA was 6cm in diameter and accompanied by bilateral common iliac artery aneurysm. After completion of CABG, AAA replacement was performed during extracorporeal circulation. There were no hemodynamic changes associated with aortic clamping or declamping under the mechanical cardiac assist during AAA surgery. This procedure appeared to be a feasible one-stage procedure in patients with AAA and coronary artery disease accompanied by impaired left ventricular function.

The left IMA graft to the LAD showed a string sign with no antegrade flow in an asymptomatic 67-year-old man 3 years after the operation. The LAD lesion had regressed from 95% stenosis to less than 50% during this period. Exercise electrocardiographic and thallium 201 myocardial scintigraphic examinations revealed no ischemia in the LAD region. When the LAD was temporarily occluded by a PICA balloon, the anterograde flow from the IMA to the LAD could be demonstrated by angiography. The IMA graft in no flow situation has maintained anatomical patency for 3 years after the operation.

Coronary artery bypass surgery in a 54-year-old female with severe calcified ascending aorta was performed with aortic no touch technique, Extracorporeal circulation with femoral cannulation was performed, and bilateral internal thoracic acteries and gastroepiploic artery were used as grafts under ventricular fibrillation and hypothermia without aortic cross-clamping. No neurological complication was observed and postoperative course was uneventful. We think the aortic no touch technique is safe and reliable in the coronary revascularization with severe calcified aorta.

In the past 9 years, 37 patients with infective endocarditis underwent valve replacement. The aortic valve was involved in 17 patients, the mitral valve in 10, and both valves in 10, respectively. 35 patients had native valve and 2 had prosthetic valve endocarditis. Bacterial findings were Streptococcus in 20 patients (54%), Staphylococcus in 5 (13.5%), gram-negative in 3 (8%), and undetected in 10 (27%). 10 patients developed aortic annular abscess. After aggressive debridement of all apparently infected tissue of annular abscess, the defects left in the left ventricular outflow tract were repaired by interrupted mattress sutures with pledgets in 4 patients, by autologous pericardial patch in 4, and by valved conduit in 2 PVE patients, respectively. Retrograde cardioplegic infusion from the coronary sinus not only facilitated operative manipulation but also provided superior myocardial protection in such patients. Operative mortality was 11% (4/37). Reoperation was necessary in 2 patients; one for periprosthetic leak, and the other for newly developed severe left coronary ostial stenosis after the first operation, but both died eventually. Late mortality was 8% (3/37). Mean follow-up of 31 months was achieved in all 30 survivors, in whom there was no recurrence of infection and clinical improvement was excellent.