Coronary artery collateral circulation developed by heart‐lung graft

Abstract

ONE FIGUREWith heart disease the leading cause of death and coronary heart disease a large fraction of these deaths, there is a real need to explore fully the possibilities in surgical treatment to lengthen the lives of those individuals threatened by coronary artery inadequacy. This preliminary report outlines the experience in this laboratory1 in preventing death in dogs from acute coronary occlusion by protecting the myocardium with a heart-lung graft. Our goal is to develop a relatively simple procedure granting a maximum of protection, applicable to patients who are not first rate surgical risks.Results by others. Early attempts to promote collateral circulation to the myocardium by Beck ('35) involved use of talc and asbestos powdering and a pectoral muscle graft. He found that use of asbestos promoted better development of collateral circulation than other irritants such as talc. Beck stated that anastomoses developed readily between skeletal muscle and cardiac muscle provided the normal blood supply to the heart has been reduced. This fact has been corroborated by subsequent investigators.The same surgical principle had been employed by 0'-Shaughnessy ('36) in England when he used omentum in much the same fashion. I n some of O'Shaughnessy's dogs, barium was injected into the vessels of the graft and it ap-'This project was carried out in the Surgical Research Laboratory of the Veterans Administratioil Hospital in Seattle, Washington, in conjunction with