Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery (CABG) Essay

Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery (CABG) - Essay Example This substance blocks/narrows the coronary arteries thereby decreasing the blood that flows to the heart muscle. Severe blockage can lead to heart attack, shortness of breath, and chest pain or discomposure/angina. One way in which CHD is treated is through CABG, whereby a cardiothoracic surgeon grafts/connects a healthy vein/artery from the body to the obstructed coronary artery. The grafted vein/artery bypasses the coronary artery’s obstructed portion, which forms a new passage, and the surgeon routs oxygenated blood around the obstruction to the heart muscle (Nih.gov, 2010). Parks explains that a bypass usually involves open-chest surgery as well as making use of a heart-lung bypass machine for circulating blood and oxygenating it. He gives a number of newer, bypass surgery methods that are less invasive and that can be used in place of open-chest surgery in some cases. One such technique entails the use of minimally invasive procedures/keyhole procedures in place of open-c hest surgery. Keyhole procedures involve the use of a number of smaller chest openings and they may not or may call for the use of a heart-lung machine. In procedures where a heart-lung bypass machine is not used, medicine is used to slow the heart although is continues beating during the process (Parks, 2009).