A Method to Create and Correct Stenosis of a Coronary Artery

LABORATORY work has demonstrated that a small knife can be passed into the lumen of a coronary artery to slice longitudinally the visceral surface of that artery. This results in a "coronary-myocardial artery" which assumes approximate normal size with at least one half of the wall composed of fibrous tissue lined with intima.^1-3 In an attempt to relate this laboratory phenomena to clinical stenotic coronary artery disease, the following experiments were performed.

Experimental Procedure  Fourteen mongrel dogs were subjected to a standardized thoracotomy. In an initial procedure, a cotton 0 suture swaged on a needle was passed within the lumen of the anterior descending coronary artery for approximately 1 cm. Bleeding was controlled by previously placed epicardial purse-string sutures and the chest was closed (Fig 1).Nine of the ten animals which survived the initial operation were reoperated on between 56 and 91 days (average 76.3 days). One animal