Significance of atherosclerotic changes of the ascending aorta during coronary bypass surgery with intraoperative detection by echography.

Intraoperative echographic studies of the ascending aorta were carried out on 100 of 222 patients having primary coronary bypass surgeries between May 1987 and December 1988. The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of echographic study in evaluating the nature of atherosclerotic disease of the ascending aorta and its incidence and relationship to perioperative cerebrovascular complications in coronary bypass surgery. It was possible to obtain clear echographic images of the aortic wall in these 100 patients which were divided into two groups according to the degree of the degenerative process. Three of 13 patients (23%) (Group II) with severe atherosclerotic changes, suffered perioperative cerebrovascular complications, and early surgical mortality in 2 patients (15%) was caused by cerebrovascular complications. These complications were not seen in 87 patients with less than moderate atherosclerotic changes (Group I).