Cardiovascular surgery (London, England)
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This study investigated whether or not revascularization to the site of old myocardial infarction can bring beneficial effects on postoperative cardiac function. Thirty-two patients without a history of old myocardial infarction and 71 with a history of old myocardial infarction were included. The mean number of grafts bypassed were 2.7 and 2.8, and the mean duration of aortic clamping was 99 min and 105 min in non-old myocardial infarction and old myocardial infarction patients, respectively. ⋯ There was a significant improvement of summated scores from 8.17 to 6.28 in the low ejection fraction (P < 0.05); however, this was not reflected in the high ejection fraction (3.76 to 3.0; NS). The regional wall motion in the old myocardial infarctions that were heart bypassed to the left anterior ascending artery (n = 67) or to the circumflex artery (n = 40) were significantly improved at regions 2 (P < 0.05), 3 (P < 0.05) and 7 (P < 0.05), and that bypassed to right coronary artery (n = 50) was also improved at regions 3 (P < 0.05), 5 (P < 0.05) and 7 (P < 0.001). This shows that augmentation of regional blood flow by coronary artery bypass grafting will contribute to awakening the hibernated myocardium even in the old myocardial infarction.