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Coronary Bypass

Narrator:

Your heart receives oxygen and nutrients from blood flowing through your coronary arteries. Fatty deposits, called atherosclerotic plaques, can build up inside these arteries, narrowing the passageway and interfering with blood flow to your heart muscle. Your doctor may perform coronary artery bypass graft surgery, or CABG [pronounced "cabbage"], to reroute your blood flow around the partially blocked area. During traditional, or "on-pump,bypass surgery, your doctor will make an incision in your chest, then cut your sternum, or breastbone, to access your heart. The procedure requires that the patient be connected to the heart lung machine while the bypasses are being performed. Acting as a temporary substitute for your heart and lungs, the heart-lung machine will keep oxygen-rich blood moving throughout your body, allowing your surgeon to stop your heart during the procedure. Your doctor will select a healthy blood vessel from another part of your body to use as a graft. Your surgeon will attach the ends of the graft above and below the narrowed part of the artery, enabling blood flow to bypass the diseased area. After the bypass is performed you are taken off the heart lung machine and our heart takes over again. You should no longer feel angina, or chest pain, once your heart muscle receives the oxygen it needs, and your risk of heart attack will be much lower.