Controversy
The value of coronary artery bypass surgery in rescuing someone having a heart attack (by immediately alleviating an obstruction) is clearly defined in multiple studies, but studies have failed to find benefit for bypass surgery vs. medical therapy in stable angina patients. The artery bypass can temporarily alleviate chest pain, but does not increase longevity. The "vast majority of heart attacks do not originate with obstructions that narrow arteries".
Loss of mental function is a common complication of bypass surgery, and should influence procedure cost benefit considerations. One published study using MRI imaging just after coronary bypass surgery found significant brain damage in 51% of patients.
Several factors may contribute to immediate cognitive decline. The heart-lung blood circulation system and the surgery itself release a variety of debris, including bits of blood cells, tubing, and plaques. For example, when surgeons clamp and connect the aorta to tubing, resulting emboli block blood flow and cause mini strokes. Other heart surgery factors related to mental damage may be events of hypoxia, high or low body temperature, abnormal blood pressure, irregular heart rhythms, and fever after surgery.
A safer and more permanent and successful way to prevent heart attacks in patients at high risk is to exercise, give up smoking, take "drugs to get blood pressure under control and drive cholesterol levels down to prevent blood clotting". Longer term, behavioral and medication treatment may be the only way to avoid vascular related loss of mental function.
Read more about this topic: Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery
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