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We evaluated the efficacy and safety of elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) at a hospital without onsite cardiac surgery. A growing number of hospitals without onsite cardiac surgery perform elective PCI. Few hospitals have reported outcomes, despite controversy surrounding this practice. From August 2003 to December 2005, 1,090 elective PCI were performed at Saint Luke's South Hospital (SLS), a hospital without onsite cardiac surgery, for which the referral center is the Mid America Heart Institute (MAHI). The elective PCI program used experienced interventionalists, technicians, and nurses; a tested helicopter transport protocol; a well-equipped catheterization laboratory; and a quality assurance process. Baseline characteristics, procedural success, and adverse clinical outcomes were compared. Observed frequencies of in-hospital death, a combined end point of Q-wave myocardial infarction (MI)/emergency coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery, and vascular complications were compared with prediction models. SLS, with lower risk characteristics than MAHI, had unadjusted frequencies of procedural success (93% vs 94%, p = NS), Q-wave MI (0.3% vs 0.3%, p = NS), emergency CABG surgery (0.2% vs 0.03%, p = 0.09), vascular complications (0.6% vs 0.6%, p = NS), and in-hospital death (0.1% vs 0.8%, p = 0.002) that compared favorably with MAHI. Two patients transferred from SLS to MAHI for emergency CABG surgery without adverse effects. Fewer in-hospital deaths and vascular complications were observed at SLS than predicted by models. In conclusion, favorable clinical outcomes were achieved for elective PCI at a hospital without onsite cardiac surgery that used strict program requirements.

It is often difficult to delineate the true course of anomalous coronary arteries by angiography because it only provides a 2-dimensional view of a complex 3-dimensional structure. The purpose of this study was to confirm morphologically the radiographic appearance of anomalous coronary arteries and to construct a protocol for rapid determination of their true course. Twenty-one adults who had anomalous origin of coronary arteries without other evidence of congenital heart disease were reviewed. Using an anatomically correct model of the heart, solder wire was placed in the pathologically described anomalous positions and radiographed. With this model the pathologically described courses could be easily recognized and separated radiographically. These courses were confirmed in the operating room in 2 patients and a rare anomaly of posterior origin of a coronary artery was also confirmed by autopsy.