Treatment of Iatrogenic Aortocoronary Arteriovenous Fistula with Coronary Covered Stent

A case report: percutaneous management of high-output heart failure from iatrogenic aortocoronary venous grafting to the coronary sinus

Background

Aortocoronary arteriovenous fistula (ACAVF) due to iatrogenic bypass grafting to a cardiac vein is an exceedingly rare complication resulting from coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery. If not identified in a timely fashion, ACAVF has known significant clinical consequences related to left to right shunting and possible residual myocardial ischemia.

Case presentation

An 82-year-old male with a history of CABG, presented with dyspnea. Over the span of 2 years following CABG, the patient experienced progressive exertional dyspnea and peripheral edema. The patient was found to have a new cardiomyopathy with a severely reduced ejection fraction at 30–35%. The patient underwent diagnostic left heart catheterization, and an ACAVF was discovered between a saphenous vein graft and the coronary sinus. The patient underwent successful percutaneous coiling of the ACAVF with no residual flow. Follow-up echocardiography at 3 months revealed restoration of left ventricular systolic function to 50% and significant improvement in heart failure symptoms.

Conclusions

ACAVF is an exceedingly rare iatrogenic complication of CABG that may result in residual ischemia from the non-grafted myocardial territory and other sequelae relating to left to right shunting and a high-output state. Management for this pathology includes but is not limited to the use of percutaneous coiling, implantation of covered stents, graft removal and regrafting, and ligation.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s43044-021-00186-1.

Closure of an acquired aortocoronary venous fistula after coronary artery bypass grafting causing heart failure and stable angina: A case report

Iatrogenic aortocoronary venous fistula arising from anastomosing an aortocoronary graft to a cardiac vein is a rare a complication following coronary artery bypass grafting. A 75-year-old male patient was admitted with recurrent angina accompanied by congestive heart failure six years after surgery. He was diagnosed with an acquired saphenous vein graft-to- cardiac vein fistula. Based on the estimation of risks versus benefits, the heart team decided to perform percutaneous closure with a vascular occlusion device. Subsequently, complaints and echocardiographic findings of the patient resolved.

Rare Cause of Late Recurrent Angina following Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting: Iatrogenic Aortocoronary Arteriovenous Fistula Causing Coronary Steal

Iatrogenic aortocoronary arteriovenous fistula is a very rare complication of coronary artery bypass grafting in which one of the arterial grafts inadvertently forms a fistulous tract with a cardiac vein, shunting blood from the anastomosed coronary artery. We report a patient with an iatrogenic left internal mammary artery graft to cardiac vein fistula presenting with recurrent angina three years after a three-vessel coronary artery bypass grafting.