Coronary Arteriography During Induced Cardiac Arrest and Aortic Occlusion

Despite current medical therapy, coronary disease will cause 500,000 deaths in the United States next year. Even though coronary surgery may be effective in only 1 of 10 patients, simple arithmetic indicates its potential. It is, therefore, essential that an adequate technique for preoperative visualization of the coronary arteries be available.

Since Rousthöi's pioneer contribution, in 1933,¹ there have appeared several reports on the subject of coronary visualization. For the most part, these have involved some form of thoracic aortography. Jönsson² was perhaps the first to visualize man's coronary arteries with use of retrograde arterial catheterization with injection of contrast media into the ascending aorta. This technique was further developed by other workers, such as Pearl,³ Helmsworth,⁴ and di Guglielmo.⁵ The methods employed by Thal⁶ and Nelson ⁷ represent current modifications of the technique first described some 25 years ago. To date, all such approaches have suffered seriously in that