Bypass Surgery Roadmap

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Coronary bypass surgery is the most common open-heart procedure performed in the United States. But as many as one in 20 bypass operations are unsuccessful. Now, new technology is allowing doctors to fix those bypasses while the patient is still in the operating room.

"It felt like pressure, as if someone had a knuckle pressing into a muscle." Ernest Frost is describing the feeling he'd get between his shoulder blades if he walked no faster than a stroll. "It would build up so that it was very uncomfortable."

Frost had heart trouble. He needed a bypass operation. In most cases, surgeons don't know if the surgery is a success until after the procedure. But doctors at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, California, used a new technology, called SPY, to track his surgery.

"It gives us a roadmap of the arteries on the heart and of the bypass that we've done," says Marc Pelletier, M.D., a cardiothoracic surgeon at El Camino Hospital.

A green dye is injected in the heart and attaches to proteins in the blood. It emits light when stimulated by a laser and lights up blood flowing through the arteries, showing Dr. Pelletier that the bypass is working.

"I'd rather take an extra 15, 20 minutes during the operation to do something if it's going to mean an extra several years for the patient," Dr. Pelletier tells Ivanhoe.

The SPY system allows him to fix a bypass while patients are still on the table, sparing them from another surgery or angioplasty. For Frost, it meant peace of mind from the moment he woke up.

"They were commenting that it went well, so I felt very good," he says. He's now walking with no pain and without any worry about the success of his surgery.

Doctors can use an angiogram in the OR to track progress, but it exposes everyone to X-rays and can be toxic to patients. SPY poses none of these risks. Right now, there are about 40 centers using the technology.

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.

If you would like more information, please contact:

Carol Walovich
Stanford Hospitals & Clinics
300 Pasteur Dr.
Stanford, CA 94305
(800) 756-9000
http://www.stanfordhospital.com