At Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, you receive academic medical center-level surgical care right in your backyard. Our Penn Medicine surgeons are highly trained, experienced and skilled in CABG surgery (coronary artery bypass surgery). They also deliver excellent outcomes.
What Is Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery?
Coronary heart disease is a buildup of plaque in the arteries that supply oxygen-rich blood and nutrients to the heart. It is the most common form of heart disease.
Coronary artery bypass surgery (also known as coronary artery bypass graft surgery) treats coronary artery disease. It is also called CABG (pronounced “cabbage”) and heart bypass surgery.
When a coronary artery is narrowed or blocked, doctors need to restore normal blood flow to your heart. Heart bypass surgery lets them reroute blood flow around the blocked or narrowed artery using a graft. A graft is a healthy artery from elsewhere in your body.
Benefits of Bypass Surgery
CABG surgery can:
- Help you live longer
- Improve blood flow
- Improve your quality of life
- Prevent or treat a heart attack
- Relieve angina symptoms like chest pain or pressure
Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery: The Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health Advantage
Board-certified Penn Medicine cardiovascular surgeons from Lancaster General Health Physicians Cardiothoracic Surgery perform our CABG procedures. This surgical practice is one of the nation's premier cardiovascular groups. Their presence gives people in Central Pennsylvania access to complex heart procedures without traveling out of the area.
Our surgeons perform about 1,000 cardiovascular procedures each year. But they don’t work alone. A large group of cardiologists, imaging specialists, advanced practice providers and skilled ICU (intensive care unit) nurses are dedicated to your care as well. Together, they bring deep experience and unique skillsets to your surgery and recovery.
Lancaster General Health has earned a distinguished three-star rating from The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) for its patient care and outcomes in isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) procedures. The three-star rating, which denotes the highest category of quality, places Lancaster General among the elite for heart bypass surgery in the United States and Canada.
The STS star rating system is one of the most sophisticated and highly regarded overall measures of quality in health care, rating the benchmarked outcomes of cardiothoracic surgery programs across the United States and Canada. The star rating is calculated using a combination of quality measures for specific procedures performed by an STS Adult Cardiac Surgery Database participant.
Approximately 20 percent of participants receive the three-star rating for isolated CABG surgery. The latest analysis of data for CABG surgery covers a 3-year period, from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2023.
Our CABG Specialties
We have special expertise in these CABG procedures:
Multi-Arterial Bypass Surgery
We specialize in multi-arterial bypass surgery. This surgery involves using more than one graft to redirect blood flow to the heart.
Multi-arterial bypass surgery is an important option for patients with longer life expectancies. Studies show that using more than one graft helps the grafts last longer. It also improves the long-term survival of patients.
Even with just one extra graft, patient survival is better after 10 years. Those numbers only increase the more grafts you use.
Coronary Bypass Reoperations
Our surgeons specialize in complex coronary bypass reoperations not commonly available elsewhere. They routinely perform these high-risk second and third CABG surgeries with excellent results.
What to Expect During Bypass Surgery
Coronary artery bypass surgery is open heart surgery. Open heart surgery means your surgeon accesses your heart through a large incision in your chest. You will need to stay in the hospital for a few days after surgery to recover.
During the surgery:
- The anesthesiologist puts you into a deep sleep using medications. This process ensures you do not feel any pain during the operation.
- Once asleep, we connect you to a ventilator, which breathes for you during the operation.
- Your surgeon removes the grafts from your legs, wrists or chest through incisions.
- Your doctor opens your chest to access your heart.
What happens next depends on whether you have an on-pump or off-pump procedure. The “pump” refers to a heart-lung bypass machine. A heart-lung machine pumps oxygenated blood throughout your body if your surgeon needs to stop your heart.
On-Pump Versus Off-Pump CABG
For an on-pump procedure, your surgeon:
- Connects you to the heart-lung bypass machine and stops your heart
- Uses the grafts to make new routes around the narrowed or blocked parts of your arteries
- Restarts your heart
- Closes your chest with stitches or staples and small wires
- Puts a bandage or dressing over your closed incision
For off-pump CABG procedures, your surgeon puts the grafts in place without stopping your heart. The rest of the process is the same. Once the surgery is over, we take you to the intensive care unit (ICU) where you wake up from the anesthesia.
Recovery After CABG Surgery
You recover in the hospital over several days as we watch your vital signs, manage your pain and increase your activity. Our cardiac rehab nurse will visit you to tell you about our cardiac rehab program and help you enroll.
Cardiac rehab and vascular rehab help you:
- Recover faster
- Avoid other heart problems
- Improve your quality of life
Typically, it takes four to six weeks to get back to most normal activities and up to eight weeks to feel like your previous energy levels have returned.
Make an Appointment
To schedule a CABG consultation, call 717-544-4995.