Thousands of people go for Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) each year. This is referred to as Bypass Surgery or Open-Heart Surgery and is performed by the top heart surgeons in Delhi if the blockage in the coronary arteries is severe. CABG used to be performed with the assistance of the heart lung machine on Cardio Pulmonary Bypass (CPB) traditionally. This medical practice is in trends nowadays as well. This open-heart surgery allows doctors to operate on a surface which is still and blood-free.
Unlike CABG, in beating-heart surgery the heart beat is not stopped and the heart lung machine is not used. This treatment is known as Off-Pump Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery (OPCAB). Beating-heart surgery has to be performed in a highly stabilized environment as heart is still functioning to pump blood to the body parts.
Who needs to undergo OPCAB?
OPCAB offers a reliable option for a healthy heart for below mentioned category of high risk patients:
- Severe left ventricular dysfunction
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD)
- Chronic renal failure
- Advanced age
- Stroke
- when hybrid procedures are required, like, a combination of stenting and bypass surgery or some other surgical correction.
Understanding the Surgical Procedure
- Proper anesthesia will be given to you before performing the beating-heart surgery.
- Then your cardiac surgeon in India will remove a portion of a healthy vein for grafting from your own body.
- This graft will be used to bypass the blockage of the coronary artery. This helps in restoring the blood flow to the heart.
- Heart positioner is used for the proper positioning of heart. The plaque is removed from the blocked arteries while the rest of the heart beats normally.
- Tissue stabilizer helps to make heart steady and continue its normal beating process during OPCAB.
- It is also important to note that at times off-pump surgery may need to be converted to on-pump surgery. This situation arises when there is hemodynamic instability or improper exposure of the vessels that are targeted during operation, or when there is global ventricular ischemia. This condition is a high risk and complicated one.
- But, our top heart surgeons in Delhi who are globally trained and have decades of experience in handling most complicated cases, are easily able to handle such cases successfully.
Advantages of OPCAB procedure
- Beating-heart surgery allows for a faster recovery of the patient after the surgery at a relatively less cost of treatment than CABG.
- This surgery also reduces the need for blood transfusions and the time of hospitalization.
- This surgical technique is also free from negative effects like fluid imbalance, inactivation of certain blood cells, damage to the platelets, affecting the function of heart, etc. These complications are otherwise more likely to happen in the traditional CABG technique.
However, it is important to note that OPCAB is not always used as a replacement for CABG. The decision regarding the same is taken by treating doctor, depending upon the patient’s medical condition. Moreover, intramyocardial vessels and target vessels that are small and diffusely diseased cannot be operated through beating heart surgery technique.
