Endocardial lesions following coronary artery by-pass surgery.

A series of post-operative deaths is presented in which coronary artery by-pass surgery had been performed at various ante-mortem intervals by the same surgical term in a single institution. When compared to an appropriate control population, these cases displayed a sequence of endocardial inflammation and progressive fibro-elastosis which suggested that injury had occurred during surgery. An assessment of the effects of this lesion and of possible etiologic factors is presented.