Who Needs CABG?
Patients suffering from Coronary Artery Disease and its associated symptoms like severe fatigue, breathlessness, palpitations, abnormal heart rhythm, indigestion, and swelling in hands and feet need CABG to alleviate symptoms.
How Is CABG Performed?
CABG is an elaborate surgical procedure that is performed with general anesthesia. It is either performed as an On-Pump or Off-Pump Bypass.
On-Pump Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery:
Under the procedure, the heart is stopped temporarily and is connected to the heart-lung bypass machine that takes over the functioning of the heart by supplying blood supply to the body.
Off-Pump Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery:
An Off-Pump Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery is an advanced, open-heart surgery that is done without a heart-lung machine. During this procedure, the heart continues to beat and supply blood to the rest of the body, and it is also known as 'beating heart surgery.'
Be it On-Pump or Off-Pump, the rest of the procedure is the same. The surgeon collects a healthy vein or artery from the leg, chest, or sometimes from the wrist for doing the bypass graft. One end of the vein is sewn over a tiny opening in the aorta, and the other end is connected to the coronary artery below the blockage.
Some patients may require more than one bypasses, depending on the blockages and the location. After finishing the grafting, the surgeon examines the grafts to ensure proper blood supply has been restored. In the case of the On-Pump procedure, the surgeon would allow the blood to circulate in the heart-lung bypass machine back into your heart.
The heart restarts on its own, but in some cases, a mild electric shock would be required to start working again.