Combined coronary artery bypass grafting and aortic valve replacement

Aortic valve replacement and/or coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) have become the most common cardiac procedures as the population ages and life expectancy increases. In isolation, both CABG and aortic valve replacement are performed with excellent outcomes throughout the world with operative mortalities of 1–2%. Both procedures have seen significant advances in recent years. The combination of an aortic valve procedure and CABG adds increased complexity and risk, which must be accounted for during operative planning in order to mitigate as much of the increased risk as possible. Improvements in postoperative care, myocardial protection, and operative techniques for combined CABG and aortic valve replacement have resulted in an operative mortality of 0.8–6.4% in recent series.