The heart is strong muscle that pumps blood to the body. In order to function the heart itself needs blood. This blood is delivered by the coronary arteries. Due to a narrowing that occurs due to a disease on the coronary arteries, sometimes the heart does not receive as much blood as it needs. This is called the coronary artery disease. One of the treatment methods of this disease is the coronary bypass operation.

Coronary Bypass Operation

Coronary artery disease can be treated in three ways. When the narrowing (stenosis) is not severe, the patient is treated with medication. In cases where the stenosis is severe, the narrow path is enlarged with stents or through a coronary bypass operation.

In the coronary bypass operation, new arteries taken from other parts of the body (thoracic artery, axillary (brachial) artery, saphenous vein) are used, in order to deliver blood to the heart tissue, bypassing the coronary stenosis.

One most commonly asked question is “Which method is better? Treating the disease with a stent or a bypass operation?”. Well, this decision must be made after a collective evaluation of all the data in hand, taking the angiography result and the medical examination into account.

In deciding which method to employ, the most important criterion is the efficiency of the treatment. The question to be asked here is: how long will these arteries remain open, after the surgery vs. stent placement? The medical state of the patient must be evaluated thoroughly and the treatment method should be picked accordingly.

In multiple-vessel coronary artery disease, in diabetic patients, extensive coronary artery disease and main coronary artery disease cases, the coronary bypass operation stands as the first treatment option.