[Surgical treatment of severe forms of ischemic heart disease]

Over 400 operations of an indirect revascularization of the myocardium have been performed at the A.I. Bakulev institute of Cardiovascular Surgery of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. Since 1970, the direct method have been developed, predominantly those of aorto-coronary bypass. Careful examination of 709 patients was carried out, 445 of them were subjected to selective coronary angiography, 108 were operated on. In 1974, 56 operations were undertaken, among them 36 aorto-coronary bypasses, in 6 of them with a preliminary endarterectomy from the coronary artery, 8 double bypasses, 6 procedures for acute myocardial infarction, 5 combined operations of aorto-coronary bypass and resections of cardiac aneurysms, and 15 resections of postinfarction aneurysms of the heart. Twelve patients died in the postoperative period, mainly due to acute cardiac insufficiency. The high figures of mortality are caused not only by the faults of the surgical procedures but also by the grave initial state of the patients (multiple coronary lesions large focal cardiosclerosis due to preceeding infarctions, high degree of initial cardiac insufficiency). The improvement of the results of surgery for the ischaemic heart disease will depend on the perfection of the surgical technique, on proper selection of the patients, and on the precise determination of the indications for such treatment.