Bypass Heart Surgery Performed Without General Anesthesia

A minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass (MIDCAB) procedure was performed at Pittsburgh while the patient was awake. The operation was done under thoracic epidural anesthesia. This approach may help in discharging the patient early from the hospital.

Dr. Zenati from the team of doctors who performed the surgery said that patients who are operated in this way may not have to go to the intensive care unit at all and this surgery may be undertaken as a day case surgery once it is perfected. Speaking about the other profound advances in the bypass surgery Dr.Zenati said, "Elimination of the heart lung machine so that our surgery is done now using beating heart techniques. Then we shrunk the size of the incision. Now we are working on a robotic method that requires only 5-mm pin-size holes. We are basically eliminating incisions altogether, We are eliminating what is not necessary while maintaining the core of the procedure, which is the arterial revascularization. Eventually we want surgical bypass to be the first line of therapy not the last resort when everything else fails." In this specific case the incision was about 2-1/2 inches, he added.