INTRODUCTION: To date, highly effective methods of myocardial protection have been developed, which are widely used in cardiac surgery. At the same time, the problem of perioperative myocardial infarction still exists and is one of the causes of adverse cardiovascular events and mortality, both at the hospital stage of treatment and in the long-term period. A factor leading to such a complication may be acute dysfunction of the coronary bypass graft, the timely detection and elimination of which will reduce the negative consequences of myocardial damage. The relevance of the study results from investigation of the relationship between the angiographic data and the character of ischemic changes on the electrocardiogram of patients with and without proven acute dysfunction of coronary bypass graft. AIM: Identification of the most pathognomonic electrocardiographic signs of dysfunction of coronary bypass grafts in the early postoperative period after planned myocardial revascularization. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study included 196 (1.86%) of 10,550 patients operated for coronary artery disease in Chelyabinsk Center of Cardiovascular Surgery from 2011 to 2020, who underwent emergency angiography after planned coronary artery bypass graft surgery due to the appearance of signs of myocardial damage in the early postoperative period. Depending on the type of angiographic findings and the chosen treatment tactics, patients were divided to 3 groups. Group I (n = 86) included patients in whom angiography revealed defects in the area of large bypassed coronary arteries, of them 60 patients underwent endovascular treatment, and 26 patients underwent repeated open surgery. Group II (n = 33) consisted of patients in whom bypass graft dysfunction was noted, but, however, due to the small diameter or pronounced diffuse lesion of the bypassed coronary arteries, all the patients underwent conservative therapy. Group III included 77 patients in whom hemodynamically significant defects in grafts and native arteries were not identified. RESULTS: When studying postoperative electrocardiographic data, it was found that significant differences between the groups were obtained only in the occurrence of ventricular arrhythmias (P1–2 = 0.027; P2–3 = 0.01). As for other pathological electrocardiographic signs and their combinations, no statistical differences were found. CONCLUSIONS: An isolated electrocardiographic study in the early postoperative period does not permit to identify patients with dysfunction of coronary bypass grafts. It is necessary to develop a diagnostic algorithm, including instrumental and laboratory methods, for accurate diagnosis of myocardial ischemia caused by impaired graft function or pathological deformation of the coronary bed due to surgical procedures.

Highlights The authors conducted a comparative analysis of early postoperative complications, mortality and economic costs in patients who underwent additional urgent endovascular revascularization and patients with standard postoperative period.There are statistically significant differences between the groups in terms of the number of resternotomies performed, the need for transfusable blood components and economic costs.It is necessary to introduce routine intraoperative quality control of the intervention, and a set of measures aimed at early detection of coronary graft failure in real clinical practice. Abstract Aim. To assess the impact of coronary graft failure and subsequent urgent endovascular revascularization in the early postoperative period after elective coronary artery bypass grafting on hospital outcome.Materials and methods. 8801 patients underwent isolated coronary artery bypass grafting at the Federal State Budgetary Institution “Federal Center for Cardiovascular Surgery” of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation in Chelyabinsk from 2011 to 2020. Inclusion criteria were as follows: patients with stable coronary heart disease, patients undergoing elective coronary artery bypass grafting. Exclusion criteria were as follows: patients with unstable angina and acute myocardial infarction who underwent urgent revascularization. The primary endpoint was hospital mortality, secondary endpoints are bleeding requiring resternotomy, acute abdominal and infectious complications, and multiple organ failure. Due to suspected acute myocardial injury, 196 (2.23%) patients underwent urgent coronary angiography, and according to angiogram, additional endovascular correction was performed in 60 (0.68%) patients (the group I). To assess the impact of coronary graft failure and subsequent revascularization on hospital outcome we have analyzed: hospital mortality, complications in the early postoperative period, financial costs. Moreover, we have formed the group II of 60 people with uncomplicated postoperative period for comparative analysis.Results. Of 196 (2.23%) patients who underwent urgent angiography 60 (0.68%) patients required stenting of native coronary arteries or conduits due to coronary graft failure. Hospital mortality in the group with complicated postoperative period was 10 % (6 cases), hemorrhagic complications occurred in 13 (21.7%) patients, acute abdomen was noted in 4 patients, and sternal wound infection was noted in 5 patients, hemodialysis due to multiple organ failure was performed in 5 patients. An intergroup comparative analysis revealed a clear trend towards an increase in deaths in the group I (n = 6/10%) compared to the group II (n = 1/1.7%), however, there were no significant differences (p = 0.11F). Hemorrhagic complications occurred significantly higher in group I (13/21.7% versus 1/1.7%, p = 0.001F); there were no statistically significant differences associated with the other complications. The number of bed-days spent in the hospital and in the intensive care unit was statistically significantly higher in the group I, financial costs per patient were also significantly higher in the group I.Conclusion. Coronary bypass graft failure in the early postoperative period leads to an increase in hospital mortality, in the frequency of multiple organ failure and hemorrhagic complications, and significantly increases the amount of needed economic resources.