Researchers from the National Institutes of Health and Atlanta-based Emory School of Medicine have performed the world’s first coronary artery bypass without opening the chest wall.
The new procedure, called ventriculo-coronary transcatheter outward navigation and re-entry, or VECTOR, was developed to prevent blockage of the left coronary artery during heart valve replacement. The technique offers a potential alternative to open-heart surgery in high-risk patients, according to a Jan. 6 news release.
The procedure was performed on a 67-year-old man whose anatomy made traditional surgery unsafe. Using catheters inserted through the legs, the team rerouted blood flow through a bypass graft anchored by custom-created access points in the aorta and the affected coronary artery.
Six months after surgery, the patient showed no signs of coronary obstruction.
The procedure was led by Christopher Bruce, MD, of NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and Emory, along with Emory physicians Adam Greenbaum, MD, and Vasilis Babliaros, MD, and NHLBI’s Robert Lederman, MD.
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