Myocardial ischemia and carotid surgery. Holter study of 21 severe coronary patients. Preventive effect of intravenous trinitrin

: Cervical carotid artery surgery is increasingly being performed in elderly, polyvascular, high risk patients, some of whom have severe coronary artery disease. Is this right? The effects of this almost routine surgical procedure from the technical point of view were analysed with respect to the coronary lesions. 1. A retrospective study of coronary events occurring in the peroperative or immediate postoperative period and at short term was carried out in 367 patients aged over 70 years old (average 73,4 years) undergoing 424 cervical carotid artery procedures with a particularly high coronary risk. 2. A prospective study of ischemic ECG changes occurring in the period between induction of anaesthesia and the 4th postoperative day was performed by Holter monitoring in 21 patients with severe coronary artery disease. The mortality and morbidity observed were very low and could be further reduced by certain anaesthetic and pre-and postoperative techniques. In particular, prophylactic intravenous trinitrin (0,5 to 1,5 gamma kg/min) was most effective in protecting the myocardium in 15 patients with severe angina (classes III and IV of the NYHA classification). The authors conclude that the surgical result depends mainly on the neurological status of the patients, the best results being obtained in asymptomatic patients (stage 0) or those having suffered transient ischemic attacks (stage 1). The global mortality and morbidity rate was less than 2 p. 100 in those groups. On the other hand, long-term survival depends mainly on the severity of the coronary artery disease.