[Assisted circulation during coronarography: advantages and limitations. A report on 63 cases (author's transl)]

During 2588 coronarography examinations conducted over a period of 4 years, assisted circulation was employed in 63 cases to reduce the risks of the examination procedure in particularly debilitated patients. These high risk cases included 48 patients with unstable angina resistant to medical treatment and 45 cases of recent infarcts with complications. Mortality with assisted circulation was very low, in spite of the severe nature of the affections, but the authors use this technique in only a limited number of cases, mainly because of the risk of lower limb ischemia, and the possibility of using intravenous nitroglycerin and analgesia from neuroleptics for examination. For this reason the number of cases examined in this way has dropped from 4% in 1977 to 2% in 1978, though assisted circulation is still employed in certain particularly severe cases of angina, and for infarcts with complications.