Heart Surgery: Coronary Artery Bypasses

New Techniques.

Two developments led to a revolution in the field of cardiovascular surgery during the middle of the decade. The first was cardiac catheterization to penetrate interior walls of the coronary arteries. This technique was pioneered by Dr. F. Mason Sones of the Cleveland Clinic in 1959. The second new method was revascularization, developed by Dr. Arthur M. Vineberg in Montreal and refined at the Cleveland Clinic by Vineberg and Dr. Donald Effer. Vineberg used a shunt to direct the flow of blood from the nonessential left internal mammary artery to the heart, bypassing diseased arteries. By the end of 1966 he had performed the surgery eighty-seven times with only three deaths due to the operation. Forty of his patients had returned to work.

A Multiple-Graft Procedure.

The mammary-artery graft worked well but was useful only if one coronary artery needed repair. The heart is served by three main artery...

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