The coronary bypass is the surgical intervention to place a vascular graft as a bridge, bypassing the obstruction of a coronary artery to divert blood through this new route.

The operation is performed under general anesthesia, opening the chest and generally with extracorporeal circulation, that is, stopping the heart and diverting blood during surgery to a machine outside the body so that the heart is at rest and surgery can be performed .

In the operation the first thing is to obtain a piece of blood vessel from the leg, chest, wrist or other part of the body to graft it into the affected coronary artery. The ends of the obtained vessel are sutured in front and behind the obstruction, thus creating the shortcut or bypass, which jumps and avoids the obstructed area.

The process is repeated as many times as obstructions have to be avoided. It is then spoken of double, triple or quadruple bypass according to the number of grafts performed.

In this procedure, the heart cavities are not opened during the operation and the blood is treated with anticoagulants to prevent it from coagulating outside the body.

In certain specific cases, a minimally invasive bypass can be performed, which is a bypass technique that does without extracorporeal circulation, without having to stop the heart. The incision is smaller and the risk of suffering complications of this surgery is reduced.