Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (Cabg) Procedure

Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) Procedure

This booklet is provided t our patients to help you understand the procedure you are about to undergo. It is our hope that the booklet will give you the information you need to allay any fears you may have about the procedure or will lead you to ask any questions you may have.

Your physician has decided that it is necessary for you to undergo coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. In determining this, you have undergone a series of tests. These tests probably included an ultrasound, a magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), computerized tomographic angiography (CTA) and an angiography. These names can be very intimidating but don’t let them get the best of you. Each one gives your doctor the information he needs to locate the blockage and to choose the best place for the graft. This is called the bypass or you could think of it as a detour.

To get you started, let’s get a brief description of your heart and how it works.

Your heart is a hollow, cone shaped muscle with four chambers. It sits between your lungs and behind the sternum (you call it your breastbone). There are three layers to you heart. The innermost layer is the endocardium. The middle layer is the myocardium and the outermost is the pericardium. The four chambers are the right atrium (RA), the right ventricle (RV), the left atrium (LA) and the left ventricle (LV). Each chamber has a valve to prevent your blood from flowing the wrong way. This valve opens when the chamber contracts or squeezes and closes when the chamber relaxes.

Each side of your heart has a different job. The blood flowing into the right side of your heart is oxygen poor so your heart pumps it from the right side into your lungs, where it collects oxygen and leaves the carbon dioxide behind. The blood then flows into the left side of your heart which then pumps it to the cells in the rest of your body giving them the oxygen needed for them to do their jobs. Your blood goes into your heart through two veins: the superior vena cava (SVC) and the inferior vena cava (IVC). The SVC gathers the blood from the top half of your body and the IVC from the lower half. It leaves the right half of your heart through the pulmonary artery to get to your lungs. Your now rich-oxygen blood leaves your lungs via the pulmonary veins to travel to the left side of your heart. Your blood then leaves the left side or you heart through the aorta. The aorta is your main artery and distributes your blood to the rest of your body.

Coronary artery bypass graft surgery is a common procedure used to divert or detour blood around the blocked arteries in your heart. There are many arteries that criss-cross your heart providing much needed oxygen to your heart. Shown below are the main arteries of you heart.

To get ready for your surgery, your doctor will give you very specific instructions to follow concerning dietary changes or restrictions in your activity. Your doctor will prescribe several pre-surgery tests which will include a chest x-ray, blood tests, an electrocardiogram and a coronary angiogram. You will be admitted to the hospital the day of your surgery.

Your surgery will take anywhere from three to five hours. You will be put to sleep with a general anesthesia. Once you’re asleep, you will have a breathing tube inserted through your mouth. This tube is then attached to a ventilator that breathes for you during your surgery and immediately after. You will not be able to speak while this tube in place but do not worry, you will be able to communicate in other ways such