Bypass Surgery
Bypass surgery is done to bypass clogged arteries supplying the heart. Heart bypass surgery creates a detour or "bypass" around the blocked part of a coronary artery to restore the blood supply to the heart muscle.
Bypass Surgery at the Heart Center
With the goal of keeping vessels open longer, the Heart Center is pioneering the more frequent use of arteries, rather than veins, in bypass surgery. Cardiothoracic surgeons have long known that the internal mammary artery has superior results to veins. Heart Center surgeons use the mammary artery and an additional one or two arterial grafts, usually radial arteries from the arm. It will take about 10 years before there is data comparing standard bypass surgery with the new technique. Many patients, though, are finding the procedure less uncomfortable than having leg veins harvested.
Learn more about Bypass Surgery 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.