Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting Combined with Total Occlusion of Internal Carotid Artery

Background: The presence of significant carotid stenosis in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) patients increases the risk of either transient ischemic attack or stroke. However, there is a dearth of data on the risk for patients with unilateral total occlusion of the carotid artery. We herein report our results of cardiac surgery in patients with unilateral total occlusion of the carotid artery. Methods: We examined 10,000 patients who underwent carotid artery duplex scanning before CABG or other cardiac procedures between January 2001 and September 2006 at Tehran Heart Center. The occlusions were detected via carotid Doppler screening and were confirmed through conventional or MR angiography. Among these patients, 15 (0.15%) patients had unilateral total occlusion of the internal carotid artery, and all of them underwent elective cardiac surgery. During cardiopulmonary bypass, the mean arterial pressure was maintained at above 60 mmHg with vasopressure drugs and increasing flow pump. Results: There were 4 patients with left and 11 patients with right carotid occlusions. Four patients had a history of cerebrovascular accident. The mean cross-clamp time (min) and perfusion time (min) was 50.7±17.3 and 94.2±26.7, respectively. The mean graft number was 4.1±0.9. One of these patients expired intraoperatively because of low cardiac output. In one (6.66%) patient, postoperative cerebrovascular accident occurred on the contralateral side of the totally occluded region. All the patients recovered uneventfully. Conclusion: Our results suggest that CABG can be performed in patients with unilateral total occlusion of the internal carotid artery without ipsilateral stroke using our strategies.