Coronary artery bypass surgery during pregnancy

Abstract

A 32-year-old woman, in the 22nd week of pregnancy, underwent emergencycoronary artery bypass grafting to the left anterior descending artery(LAD). She had suffered an acute myocardial infarction 10 days previously,and continued to suffer from intractable angina pectoris afterwards.Cardiac catheterization revealed spontaneous dissection of the LAD. Theleft internal mammary artery was used to bypass the LAD, and the operationwas performed on a beating heart without the use of cardiopulmonary bypass.The patient's recovery was uneventful, and ultrasound examination and pulsemonitoring of the fetus were both normal. She subsequently gave birth to ahealthy term baby. To our knowledge this is the second report of coronaryartery bypass surgery performed successfully in a pregnant woman. Webelieve the unique surgical approach avoided the risk of cardiopulmonarybypass to the fetus and placenta.