Early Myocardial Resuscitation via Coronary Sinus Retroperfusion

Between January 1996 and December 1998, 9 patients needed emergency surgical revascularization after percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty failure. The mean age of these 6 men and 3 women was 64 ± 4.2 years. Under anesthesia and partial cardiopulmonary bypass, a cardioplegia needle was inserted into the ascending aorta and a retrograde cardioplegia cannula was introduced transatrially into the coronary sinus. Coronary sinus retroperfusion was performed during graft harvesting for revascularization. There was 1 death (11.1%) from multiorgan failure in a patient who had required cardiopulmonary resuscitation preoperatively. There was evidence of new myocardial infarction in 2 patients (22.2%) and the other 7 made a good recovery.