Hradayam

Traditional heart surgery often called open-heart surgery is done by opening the chest wall to operate on the heart. The surgeon cuts through the patient's breastbone (or just the upper part of it) to open the chest. Once the heart is exposed the patient is connected to a heart-lung bypass machine. The machine takes over the heart's pumping action and moves blood away from the heart. This allows the surgeon to operate on a heart that isn't beating and that doesn't have blood flowing through it. Another type of heart surgery is called off-pump or beating heart surgery. It's like traditional open-heart surgery because the chest bone is opened to access the heart. However the heart isn't stopped and a heart-lung bypass machine isn't used. Off-pump heart surgery is limited to CABG. Newer methods of heart surgery (such as off-pump and minimally invasive) may reduce risks and speed up recovery time. Studies are under way to compare these types of heart surgery with traditional open-heart surgery. The results of these studies will help doctors decide the best surgery to use for each patient.