Coronary artery spasms may occur as a serious complication during the trans-operative and immediate postoperative periods of coronary artery bypass surgery (CABS). The small number of cases reported is responsible for making it difficult not only to choose an adequate treatment but also to determine risk factors that might be responsible for its incidence. Coronary artery spasms have a multifactorial character, sudden appearance and must be part of the differential diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction and low output syndrome among patients submitted to heart surgery. We describe a case of a patient submitted to CABS with extracorporeal circulation who presented electrocardiographic alterations suggesting acute myocardial infarction during the immediate postoperative period but was diagnosed as having coronary artery spasms evidenced by a coronary catheterism performed afterwards. The patient was successfully treated with intracoronary vasodilators with good evolution over the short and medium terms.
Coronary disease; Spasm; Myocardial revascularization; Coronary vasospasm
