[Coronary surgery at the Cardiovascular Surgical Clinic (1976-1990)]

In the Cardiovascular Surgical Clinic of the Semmelweis Medical University of Budapest the first coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) procedure was performed in 1975. Since that time coronary artery surgery has become a routine everyday practice representing more than half of the total workload of adult cardiac surgery. The analysis of 1347 operations performed between 1976-1990 on patients with coronary heart disease showed the followings: the first few years--so called learning curve of CABG operations is characterised by high mortality. With passing time the number of cases performed each year increased rapidly and the surgical technique has improved too. At the same time the operative mortality figures showed decreasing tendency--it was 2.1% for the last 609 cases. All observed parameters showed some progress: in 1990 the average number of grafts per patient was 3.09, internal mammary artery usage 15 percent and the mean aortic cross clamp time per anastomosis 24.5 minutes. Complete myocardial revascularisation is the key point of coronary artery surgery. In order to achieve this target in all operated cases further technical improvement is necessary.