Summary:
Objective: our initial experience with 15 patients operated on
without general anesthesia is reviewed to explore the validity
of our surgical strategy. Material and Methods: 15 males
between 45-65 years underwent off-pump coronary artery
bypass grafting (OPCAB) with high thoracic epidural
anesthesia (HTEA) between April to September 2006. Target
vessels involved were the single vessel in 5, double vessel in 7
and triple vessel disease in 3 patients. CABG was performed
through a median sternotomy in 13 patients and through
limited access in 2 patients. Results: Among 15 patients,
patients remain awake or were lightly sedated breathing
spontaneously in 9 cases. In 3 patients pneumothorax was
observed during surgical intervention. Average length of ICU
stay was 1 day (range 1 to 2 days). In all cases, patients
showed lack of treatable cardiac dysrhythmias and stable
haemodynamic response to surgical procedures including
cardiac positioning and direct handling.