Heart Bypass

What is Heart Bypass Surgery?
Bypass surgery, also called coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, is a surgical procedure performed to relieve angina and reduce the risk of death from coronary artery disease.
Arteries or veins are grafted from different parts of the patient's body to the coronary arteries in order to bypass the atherosclerotic narrowings and improve the blood supply to the coronary circulation supplying the heart muscle.
This surgery is usually performed with the heart stopped, necessitating the usage of cardiopulmonary bypass.
Bypass surgery is the most common major surgery in the India, with over 500,000 surgeries performed anually.

New techniques for CABG:
- OCABG (off-pump CABG), is a technique to perform CABG on a beating heart.
- MICABG (minimally invasive CABG) is a technique where the incision is smaller, reducing some of the risks of this surgery.

Success rate
The current success rate for bypass surgery is 95% to 98%, meaning that between 2% and 5% of all patients have complications, including death.

How much time is required?
2-6 hours, depending on the number of bypasses to be performed. Usually 4-7 days (3-4 days inb the hospital in case of a minimally invasive CABG)

What type of anesthesia will be given?
General anesthesia

How will patient recover?
You might be able to move around a few days after the surgery, according to your status and the doctor's advice.
Usually you will be able to get back to work within 12 weeks.

What should be cared?
Instructions on how to care of one is required to do the follow up nursing. These could include:
caring for the incision wound(s)
taking plenty of rest
resisting from physical activity