Nonsurgical Bypass Procedure Developed
From Times Wire Reports
A bypass procedure that transforms veins into arteries without opening the chest cavity could one day offer treatment for patients with severe coronary artery disease who cannot undergo traditional bypass surgery or angioplasty, experts said.
A case study being published in today’s Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Assn., documents the first nonsurgical bypass using catheters to make the coronary vein a conduit for blood flow around the diseased coronary artery. The catheters are inserted in a leg and threaded into the coronary arteries.
