Federico Benetti

and 2 more

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

Federico Benetti

and 1 more