Improvements in vascular surgery, including new magnification techniques, allow surgeons to operate much farther down the leg. People believe there's a limit as to how far down the leg we can go with a bypass. Another change in the inpatient procedure is the use of the patient's own tissue. Surgeons take a vein from the same leg, avoiding extra incisions, and attach it to the blocked artery to bypass the blood. With all the improvements, the current success rate is 80 to 90 percent.
Patients are up and walking the first day after surgery.
The average hospital stay is less than five days. Patients must return each year for an ultrasound to ensure that the bypass continues to function well. Adjustments can be made to correct spots where it may have narrowed. Following his bypass, he went back on the road taking trips with his wife.