High Cholesterol – Life Style Modifications

Earlier treatment of high cholesterol with statin drugs with Atorvastatin and Simvastatin will help to a certain extent in avoiding CABG; however, it requires strict diet regimen and other kind of serious life style modifications.

An open heart surgery done to treat the coronary artery disease is called as Coronary Artery Bypass Graft. In coronary artery disease the artery is blocked due to the deposition of fatty substances which leads to poor supply of oxygen rich blood and nutrients. In CABG a new blood vessel is attached from the main artery aorta to a point in the coronary artery beyond the blockage. The blood vessels may be taken form wall of the chest, legs or arm to make a graft for doing bypass graft.

Before doing the operation the surgeon will few instruction to follow which include quitting of smoke before surgery and the operation is done under general anesthesia. The other alternative for CABG will be precutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA). Sometimes instead of cutting large portion of the sternum, the operation is done through small cuts known as keyhole surgery. The sternum takes six weeks to heal but usually the full recovery can take two to three months depending on the severity and health of the patients.

It is commonly performed and generally considered to be safe. But there are few side effects and risk of complication associated with CABG which the patient must be informed before doing surgery. Sometimes feeling sick as a result of general anesthetic, feel discomfort and have swelling around the wound areas for few weeks, permanent scars on the chest, poor memory and concentration which disappears after six months are some of the side effects associated with CABG.

The complication occurs during or after the surgery. An expected reaction to anesthetic, excessive bleeding or may develop a blood clot usually in the leg, heart attack, stroke, death etc are some of the risk of CABG, but these are not very common and it differ from person to person.