Abstract
In the study “Long-term outcomes following surgical repair of coronary
artery fistula in adults”, Wada and associates, retrospectively
evaluated 13 consecutive patients that underwent surgical repair of CAF
No deaths, significant ST-T changes or CAF-related events were reported
in a follow-up period of 66.2 months, and 1 patient showed poor contrast
RCA#2 on postoperative coronary CT with a myocardial scintigraphy
showing no significant change compared to the preoperative state
Coronary artery fistulas (CAF) are rare congenital or acquired
malformations in the connection of the coronary vessels, first described
by Krause in 1865 (2). They can be classified as coronary-cameral
fistulas, which connect coronary arteries with any of the heart
chambers, or coronary artery malformations, which connect coronary
arteries with systemic or pulmonary vessels. Congenital CAFs are
normally a result of abnormal embryological development, acquired CAFs
are commonly a result of cardiac traumatic injuries, and iatrogenic CAFs
are usually a result of interventional cardiac procedures. This
condition is still highly undiagnosed, as around 75% of
incidentally-found CAFs are small and clinically silent, but it is
estimated that CAFs are present in about 0.9% of the general population
In our experience, we have a CAF incidence of 0.05% in 10,000 cardiac
surgeries, which have demonstrated beneficial outcomes of the surgical
repair of CAFs in adults . Authors of this article must be congratulated
for the successful development of the study and for the contributions to
the literature on this rare condition