During surgery, surgeons sew a shunt, creating additional pathways for blood flow bypassing affected or clogged areas of the artery.
The material for the shunt is most often the patient's own healthy vein taken from the lower leg, thigh and/or internal thoracic artery.
One end of the vein is sewn into the aorta, the other into the coronary artery behind the narrowing point (block).
We perform coronary artery bypass in several methods, depending on the specific case and individual patient characteristics: With the heart in cardioplegic arrest - cardiopulmonary bypass machine takes over the functions of the heart and lungs during surgery.
Another method is beating heart surgery, or off-pump coronary artery bypass, where the heart and lungs work independently and special equipment
is used to stabilize the surgery area.
Through mini-approach, the surgery is performed through a small opening in the intercostal space.
On average, the surgery lasts 3-4 hours.
The decision on the method of surgery is made in each case individually, depending on the degree and size of damage to the coronary vessels, as well as concomitant pathology.
Increasingly, our surgeons are opting for the least traumatic methods - on a beating heart and through mini-approach.
This kind of intervention requires a highly skilled surgical team, and produces excellent results - the time spent in hospital is reduced, and recovery is much quicker and less painful.
Our centre was one of the first in Russia to perform minimally invasive coronary artery bypass using the MICS CABG technique.
