Heart bypass surgery is exactly what name implies: a detour or bypass around clogged arteries through the use of arterial grafts around the damaged areas. Coronary artery bypass surgery is also called CABG, which stands for coronary artery bypass graft.

The traditional approach to any type of heart surgery used to be placing a patient on a heart lung machine for the four to six hours that the cardiac surgery took. However, updated techniques are used in the 21st century.

Avoiding the use of a heart lung machine, cardiovascular surgery today relies on what is called an off pump coronary artery bypass, or OPCAB, which allows the bypass to be performed while the heart still beats. This method reduces the risk of memory loss and mental confusion caused by loss of blood flow to the brain.

Another technique used by the best cardiologist specialists avoids splitting or removing the breastbone, or sternum. This technique is called minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass, also known as MIDCAB.

Half a million Americans undergo coronary bypass surgery every year, and numbers are multiplying as the effects of high fat and high cholesterol diets are becoming readily apparent.

Cardiac care in the United States is extremely expensive. A heart bypass can cost up to $130,000, with average costs of $15,000 to $30,000 per graft. The same procedures cost roughly $10,000 in India, and $18,500 at the National Heart Centre in Singapore. In South Africa, the procedure cost about $12,800.