Heart Bypass Surgery

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Heart Bypass Surgery: Indications

Coronary artery bypass surgery is a treatment option for ishcemic heart disease (too little blood reaching the heart muscle). Coronary surgery is indicted when there is disease of the left main coronary artery, there is disease of three or more vessels (triple vessel disease), or there was failure of nonsurgical management. Nonsurgical management includes medication and/or angioplasty.

The earliest symptoms of ischemic heart disease include angina (chest pain) and shortness of breath. A person may have no symptoms; have mild, intermittent chest pain; or have more pronounced and steady pain. Still others have CAD that is severe enough to make normal everyday activities difficult.

Symptoms that usually bring a person to a doctor are a feeling of heaviness, tightness, pain, burning, pressure, or squeezing. This is usually behind the breastbone, but sometimes it is also in the arms, neck, or jaw. However, some people have heart attacks without ever having any of these symptoms first.

In cases where there are no symptoms, a doctor may suspect CAD and perform a stress test to determine if it is present. CAD is sometimes suspected if there is a family history of heart disease and a combination of other factors, including high blood cholesterol, diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, cigarette smoking, and being a male.

Because CAD varies so much from one person to another, the way it is diagnosed and treated will also vary. Heart bypass surgery is just one treatment.