Background: Surgical management of coronary artery disease has improved dramatically over the last decades in terms of short- and long-term results. Nevertheless, elderly patients (more than 75 years); patients with reduced ejection fraction (less than 0.25), heavily calcified aorta, or coexisting noncardiac diseases; and patients requiring cardiac reoperation have an increased perioperative risk when operated on with cardiopulmonary bypass. Successful minimally invasive coronary artery bypass grafting without cardiopulmonary bypass has been reported in selected cases.
Methods: In 8 of 40 high-risk patients undergoing operation on a beating heart, minimally invasive coronary bypass grafting was combined with vascular (carotid endarterectomy, n = 3; aortic replacement, n = 2) and abdominal procedures (a second look after combined pancreas and kidney transplantation) or defibrillator implantations (n = 2).
Results: Postoperatively, there was no mortality, no morbidity, and no blood transfusion. Patients are free of symptoms at an average follow-up time of 5.5 +/- 5 months.
Conclusions: Our results indicate that minimally invasive coronary artery bypass grafting technique can be particularly useful if noncardiac procedures have to be performed in high-risk patients with significant coronary artery disease.