CABG is a kind of procedure used to treat coronary artery disease.

What are coronary arteries:

Coronary arteries are the main blood vessels that carry blood to the heart. They make it possible for the heart to beat and pump blood throughout the whole body and provide oxygen. They are of two kinds, right coronary artery and left main coronary artery. Each of them contains smaller branches that go deep inside the heart.

Ailment in coronary arteries:

But sometimes due to some reasons like forming of a fatty, wax like residue called plaque, the arteries become stiffer and narrower. This will prevent in further flow of blood and oxygen. For that reason cells don’t get enough oxygen and blood that they required.

This artery blockage can cut off blood flow which can cause heart attack.

What is Coronary artery bypass graft surgery?

It is a procedure to restore blood flow to the areas of our heart. CABG restore blood flow by using blood vessels from other parts of the body usually from chest, leg or arm. 

These vessels are then attached to above and below of narrowed area or blockage. This can improve the heart function and how we feel when we are likely have feeling of heart attack. These new blood vessels are known as graft. 

The number of grafts depends on how severe the coronary heart disease is and how many Vessels has narrowed.

Types of CABG

Depending upon the need for the treatment, a particular technique for CABG is used and the surgery may varied.

The variation of the surgery may include the following

1) Off Pump CABG:  Here CABG doesn’t use a heart lung bypass machine. That means, the surgeon doesn’t stop the heart while  the procedure is going on and does all the procedure while the heart is beating

2) Robot Assisted CABG: Robots which are mainly made for surgery are highly advanced machines. So a surgeon may prefer to use them to perform CABG surgery. To do this, a surgeon “drives” the robot that means they control the movements of the robot. These Robotic surgeries use smaller incisions and dosn’t involve opening and lifting our sternum.

3) Hybrid procedure: This procedure mixes CABG with other techniques or approaches. Usually this involves robot-assisted CABG on at least one artery, but for the remaining diseased blood vessels, non-CABG techniques like stenting are used. Inserting a stenting helps in holding the artery open because it acts like a skeleton of the artery.

4) Minimally invasive CABG: Here the surgeon uses much smaller incisions and accesses our heart through the gaps between some of our ribs. This type of version of the procedure may also use the off-pump technique.

Advantages of using CABG in India

Indian hospitals are fully equipped for CABG surgery. CABG has many advantages which make it useful and a common procedure to treat heart problem.

• It has a long history of use. It was used many years ago, early in 1960.

• It is better for multiple blockage or Blockage in certain arteries.

• It has lower risk of follow up procedure