Most reports on emergency coronary revascularization deal with failed percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) or refractory ischemia which developed after hospital admission. The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and prognosis of emergency revascularization for acute myocardial infarction evolving outside the hospital. Between 1974 and 1992 54 cases were included in this study. The patients had both electrocardiographic and clinical evidence of ongoing ischemia. One or more infarct-related obstructed coronary arteries were documented by emergency angiography. Since 1981, the patients have been given urokinase, and, since 1986, they have undergone PTCA initially and, when reperfusion failed, revascularization was started. Overall in-hospital mortality has been 11.1% (6/54). All other patients were discharged in satisfactory condition. Follow-up for periods of up to nearly twenty years has been uneventful with the exception of two late sudden deaths. The above results confirm that emergency coronary revascularization is a therapeutical option worth considering.