Coronary artery bypass surgery is a treatment usually performed because one or more of the arteries in the heart is blocked. You may hear this surgery referred to as CABG (pronounced ‘cabbage’) or open-heart surgery. Open-heart refers to the chest being opened, not the heart itself being opened. During the surgery, a graft (a blood vessel from another part of the body usually the groin or arm), is used to bypass the blocked blood vessel. The heart muscle receives oxygen from the coronary arteries. Blocked arteries decrease the amount of oxygen to the heart tissues causing damage to the heart tissues. The graft provides a new route, or "a bypass" for the blood to be delivered to the heart tissues.
During the surgery, caregivers will connect your heart to a bypass machine. This machine keeps your blood out of the heart during the surgery. The new graft vessel is attached above and below the blocked artery. After the graft is in place, the bypass machine will be disconnected and blood will flow through your heart. The chest is then closed using wire and staples or stitches (thread). You will also have an incision in your leg or groin area, if that was the site for the graft.
After surgery, you will be taken to the recovery room where specially trained nurses will watch you very closely. You will also have several tubes in place. All of these tubes are important to help the nurses monitor your recovery. From the recovery room, you will be transported to St. Rita’s Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU) where you will stay for four to five days (if there are no complications).
Patients and their families receive individualized home-going instructions including one-on-one diet instructions from a dietician, medication education from a pharmacist and instructions from an exercise physiologist.
It is said, "A picture says a thousand words." To learn more about coronary artery bypass surgery, view our animation depicting this treatment procedure for obstructed coronary arteries.
