No abstract

Early surgical intervention is vital for the treatment of acute aortic dissection and acute aortic valve endocarditis, because interventional delay is associated with increased mortality. Although heart operations should not be performed without knowledge of the current coronary status, preoperative coronary angiography may delay the procedure and entails additional risks for the patient. 1 Furthermore, patients who have aortic valve endocarditis with floating bacterial structures on the valve cusps face an increased risk of coronary ostia embolism during coronary angiography. 2 Preoperative catheterization in patients with acute aortic dissection may also affect the false lumen or aggravate the dissection, thus increasing perioperative risk. 3 We report here the successful use of intraoperative coronary angiography to detect coronary disease in high-risk patients with acute aortic dissection or acute endocarditis.

T, et al. On-pump beating-heart coronary artery bypass grafting after acute myocardial infarction has lower mortality and morbidity.