Coronary endarterectomy: The current state of knowledge

Coronary artery endarterectomy (CE) is a procedure performed adjunctive to coronary artery bypass grafting in patients with diffuse coronary artery disease (CAD). This review was conducted in order to assess the safety of the procedure, the associated complications as well as short- and long-term patient outcomes. A literature search was performed via Pubmed, and 50 articles were included in the review based on our inclusion and exclusion criteria. The mortality and morbidity rates were found to be acceptable in a highly selected group of patients. Therefore, CE may have an important role to play in the surgical management of patients with complicated CAD and should be incorporated to the armamentarium of the cardiologist and the cardiac surgeon following careful consideration by a multi-disciplinary approach.