Surgical treatment of coronary artery aneurysm with rupture into the right atrium

Considering the increasing number of patients with chest pain who undergo routine coronary artery arteriography, coronary artery aneurysm may be found more frequently. To know how to manage these aneurysms, we must understand their possible complications. The aneurysms can produce symptoms of angina or acute myocardial infarction by total thrombosis of the aneurysm and vessel, embolism to the distal vessel, or progressive enlargement and encroachment upon the distal vessel until it is occluded. Moreover, the aneurysm may enlarge and rupture into the free pericardium or produce a fistula by eroding into a chamber of the heart. The case described herein may represent the first reported case of a coronary artery aneurysm eroding into a cardiac chamber and causing an arteriovenous fistula. The treatment of choice is resection of the aneurysm, closure of the fistula, and re-establishment of continuity of the distal coronary artery with a saphenous vein bypass graft.