Scientific basis for the surgical treatment of coronary artery disease.

Abstract

To understand the scientific basis for the surgical treatment of coronary artery disease it is necessary to analyze information obtained by experiments on dogs. One of us (C. S. B.) and his associates have done about 5,000 operations on the coronary blood vessels in the last 23 years, and these are the basis for this presentation. There are several variables inherent in this work, and it is appropriate here to state that these must be properly taken care of, otherwise erroneous conclusions will be made. A report on much of this experimental work has been published inThe Journal. 1 In these experiments the reduction in coronary artery inflow was produced by placing ligatures around the coronary arteries. In the human, arteriosclerosis produces reduction in coronary artery inflow. The net result is reduction in arterial inflow. This is not a study of arteriosclerosis. Even if this disease could be produced