Coronary artery bypass surgery facts for kids

Coronary artery bypass surgery is a type of surgery that relieves chest pain, caused by lack of blood flow, and reduces the risk of death from heart disease. It is also known as coronary artery bypass graft (CABG, pronounced "cabbage") surgery, and known by doctors as heart bypass or bypass surgery.

In this surgery, blood vessels from elsewhere in the patient's body are added to the heart vessels to go around blood vessels blocked by fat and get more blood into the heart so it can keep running. This surgery usually happens with the heart stopped, which makes machines that act as lungs and heart needed. However, it is possible to have the surgery with the heart still pumping, called "off-pump" surgery.

Number performed

CABG is one of the most common procedures performed during U.S. hospital stays; it accounted for 1.4% of all operating room procedures performed in 2011. Between 2001 and 2011, however, its volume decreased by 46%, from 395,000 operating procedures performed in 2001 to 213,700 procedures in 2011.

History

The first coronary artery bypass surgery was performed in the United States on May 2, 1960, at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine-Bronx Municipal Hospital Center by a team led by Robert H. Goetz and the thoracic surgeon, Michael Rohman with the assistance of Jordan Haller and Ronald Dee.

Images for kids

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  René Gerónimo Favaloro was an Argentine cardiac surgeon and educator best known for his pioneering work on coronary artery bypass surgery using the great saphenous vein.

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  Three coronary artery bypass grafts, a LIMA to LAD and two saphenous vein grafts – one to the right coronary artery system and one to the obtuse marginal system.

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  Coronary artery bypass surgery during mobilization (freeing) of the right coronary artery from its surrounding tissue, adipose tissue (yellow). The tube visible at the bottom is the aortic cannula (returns blood from the HLM). The tube above it (obscured by the surgeon on the right) is the venous cannula (receives blood from the body). The patient's heart is stopped and the aorta is cross-clamped. The patient's head (not seen) is at the bottom.

See also

In Spanish: Baipás coronario para niños