Bypass surgery

A bypass is a surgically created bridge for a passage obstruction. It creates a new connection between the beginning and end of a constriction ( stenosis ) is produced. A bypass surgery is the colloquial term usually surgery on the heart, can be bridged with the strongly narrowed or completely occluded coronary artery to restore adequate blood supply to the heart muscle.

Bypasses most commonly in vascular surgery, for example for the treatment of end-stage of the so-called intermittent claudication (peripheral arterial occlusive disease - PAD), performed or the treatment of an aneurysm. Also in cardiac surgery coronary artery bypass is performed in coronary heart disease ( CHD), for example.

In a bypass operation to removes veins and / or arteries of your own body or from dead and uses them to bridge the throat. Likewise bypasses of art fabrics are used (eg Gore- Tex). In vascular bypass surgeries are mostly artificial vascular prostheses, but also veins used as the body's own material. There are also created artificial shunts and anastomoses.

It can be distinguished clear where resort to dentures and when the body's own veins or donor vessels: For procedures where such an aorta is completely replaced, a sufficiently large vein in the body would be present, it must, therefore, on so-called " tube prostheses " resorted be, as if closures of the pelvic arteries are treated ( eg, with a Y- prosthesis ). And the thigh prosthesis can be resorted to without major problems. If the bypass is rescheduled by the knee (even if this takes an extra - anatomic! ) Will wherever possible resort to a vein, since the closure danger due to extreme stress by gravitational forces etc. is very high. However, should not be a vein, is delivered because either all already "consumed" are, or extreme varicose veins is present, use is made usually on a ring- reinforced prosthesis in order to always keep the lumen open.

At the carotid artery Endarterektomien are frequently carried out. A complication here is a primarily ischemic stroke, the risk is to be reduced by the operation. Closed vessels, or grafts can sometimes be saved with a thrombectomy or with a stent (see also angioplasty).

But in other operational areas is referred to as a bypass operation, such as when a constriction of the intestine as a result of a tumor is treated by a short-circuit operation. This is sewn in front of the constriction of the intestine after the constriction simply the intestine. A Roux -en- Y gastric bypass can be applied in the obesity surgery and weight loss.

Alternatively, a bypass can be used as interposition in vascular surgery, an implant, so as a substitute of the vessel section affected by the passage obstruction. The choice between interposition and bypass depends on various factors such as location and extent of damage and the nature and size of the affected vessel.

Trivia

About his bypass surgery of the poet Robert Gernhardt wrote a whole cycle of poems: Heart in Need ( S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-596-16072-3. ).