CABG
Coronary Artery Bypass Graft - sometimes referred to as CABG, is surgery done to reroute, or "bypass," blood around clogged arteries and improve the supply of blood and oxygen to the heart.
What Specific Conditions Does CABG treat?
CABG is a treatment option for ishcemic heart disease (too little blood reaching the heart muscle). Coronary surgery is indicted when there is disease of the left main coronary artery, there is disease of three or more vessels (triple vessel disease), or there was failure of nonsurgical management. Nonsurgical management includes medication and/or angioplasty.
The earliest symptoms of ischemic heart disease include angina (chest pain) and shortness of breath. A person may have no symptoms; have mild, intermittent chest pain; or have more pronounced and steady pain. Still others have CAD that is severe enough to make normal everyday activities difficult. Because CAD varies so much from one person to another, the way it is diagnosed and treated will also vary. CABG is just one treatment.
Learn more about CABG at the Heart Center at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center has been performing cardiac surgery since the 1940s and helped pioneer open-heart surgery in North Carolina. Through the years, Medical Center cardiologists and heart surgeons have made major contributions in the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease.