What is Coronary Artery Bypass?

A broad range of cardiac surgical options are available at McLaren Health Care including:

  • Open heart (coronary artery bypass, or CABG) surgery is performed in order to reroute, or "bypass," blood around blocked arteries, thereby improving the supply of oxygen-rich blood to the heart. Surgeons usually use an artery from the chest wall to construct the "detour" around the blocked part of the artery. Veins from the legs are also used.
  • Off-pump bypass surgery (OPCAB) is possible for some open heart surgery patients. While standard open heart surgery requires the use of a mechanical heart-lung machine during the procedure, this reduces the risk of some complications and shortens recovery time.
  • Endoscopic Vein Harvesting is a minimally invasive procedure performed to extract the saphenous vein from the leg. The procedure requires one to three small incisions, each less than 1 inch in length. The procedure is part of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, which is performed to bypass one or more blocked coronary arteries and restore oxygen-rich blood flow to the heart.

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