[Emergency coronary artery bypass grafting with warm blood cardioplegia for a patient with acute myocardial infarction and severe left ventricular dysfunction]

Emergency coronary artery bypass grafting was performed in a 61 year old man who developed acute severe cardiac and respiratory dysfunction after myocardial infarction. At operation cardiac arrest was obtained by warm blood cardioplegia in antegrade intermittent fashion. The left anterior descending artery, diagonal branch, and right coronary artery were revascularized by saphenous vein (SVG). After declamping the aorta, spontaneous heart beating was obtained and postoperative course was uneventful. Postoperative examination showed patent all SVGs and improved cardiac function. Although the delivery of the warm blood cardioplegia was controversial, our recent study revealed that the intermittent antegrade delivery of warm blood cardioplegia showed no ischemic changes of the heart during the procedure.