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Article: Bypass surgery without the pump Keeping the heart pumping during bypass surgery can reduce complications and speed up recovery. So why are only 20 percent of bypasses being done this way?(Health & Fitness)
- Article from:
- Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL)
- Article date:
- August 6, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Paddock Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Lorilyn Rackl Daily Herald Health Writer
Picture the Eisenhower at rush hour. That's what it was like inside three of the congested arteries feeding blood and oxygen to Phyllis Dickson's heart.
So the Wauconda woman, like 350,000 other people in the United States each year, went to the hospital for coronary artery bypass surgery. The goal: get around that traffic jam in her arteries by building side streets with other blood vessels.
But instead of stopping Dickson's heart as is typical during the operation, her surgeon kept her heart beating. The muscle continued to pump away while he sewed her new blood pathways in place.
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