Coronary bypass surgery in exercise-induced ventricular tachycardia.
Among 400 consecutive patients undergoing conventional isolated bypass surgery, 9 patients had clinical and electrocardiographic evidence of severe ischaemia during exercise and serious exercise-induced ventricular arrhythmias. Four patients had spontaneous exercise-induced arrhythmias and two had been resuscitated for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Postoperatively all patients were free of angina, off anti-anginal drugs with considerably increased exercise capacity and maximal heart rate during exercise. No spontaneous or exercise-induced arrhythmias have recurred during observation periods ranging from one to four and a half years. In this subset of patients ischaemia seems to be the crucial arrhythmia-inducing factor and bypass surgery alone may therefore be therapeutic. The reduction of ischaemic exercise-induced arrhythmias may be one way by which bypass surgery reduces mortality in larger patient series.
D000368:Aged; D002037:Bundle-Branch Block / Q000601:surgery; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000601:surgery*; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006352:Heart Ventricles; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000601:surgery; D005082:Physical Exertion; D013610:Tachycardia / Q000601:surgery*; D014693:Ventricular Fibrillation / Q000601:surgery