Coronary artery bypass surgery

Coronary artery bypass surgery restores blood flow to heart muscle by grafting blood vessels to route blood around narrowed or blocked coronary arteries.

Coronary artery: An artery that supplies oxygen-rich blood to the heart muscle. These vessels are the narrowed or blocked routes the graft bypasses.
Coronary artery disease: A condition in which plaque narrows or blocks arteries supplying the heart muscle. It is the disease bypass surgery treats when impaired coronary flow warrants revascularization.
Coronary Artery Surgery Study: A landmark randomized trial comparing coronary bypass surgery with medical treatment in the 1970s and 1980s. Its results helped define the survival value of surgery in selected coronary disease.
Graft patency: The continued openness and functional blood flow of a vascular graft. Long-term benefit depends on grafts remaining open after surgery.
Internal thoracic artery: An artery running inside the chest wall, commonly used as a bypass graft. Its durable flow makes it a frequent graft to the left anterior descending artery.
Percutaneous coronary intervention: A catheter-based procedure that opens narrowed coronary arteries, often using a stent. It is a less invasive revascularization alternative for many coronary blockages.
SYNTAX trial: A trial comparing bypass surgery with percutaneous intervention in patients with complex coronary artery disease. It linked anatomical complexity to differences between surgical and catheter-based revascularization.
Saphenous vein graft disease: Progressive atherosclerosis and failure affecting vein grafts after coronary bypass. Vein grafts can narrow or occlude over time, sometimes requiring further treatment.
Saphenous vein: A large superficial vein of the leg that can be harvested for vascular grafting. A segment can connect the aorta to a coronary artery beyond a blockage.
Left main coronary artery disease: Atherosclerotic narrowing of the coronary artery trunk that supplies much of the left heart. Extensive disease here can make surgical bypass preferable to catheter treatment.

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