Ph. D. HeartInfo Commentary Coronary artery bypass surgery involves taking a blood vessel from the leg or chest to create a new conduit around a blockage in one of the coronary arteries. Bypass surgery, however, is not recommended for all patients. The human body has the remarkable ability to stimulate the production of new blood vessels in the heart that can bypass the blockage, much like a surgeon can. Because of scar tissue that forms with open chest surgery, most patients can have only two bypass operations in a lifetime.
Patients requiring a third operation are often very ill, but are usually turned away by surgeons.
And patients with diabetes have so much diffuse coronary disease that surgeons don't have a good place to connect the two ends of the bypass. Angiogenic therapy is the only revascularization option for these patients. Reports from the first clinical trials show that patients' symptoms were relieved following treatment and there were few side effects associated with the drugs. While the results are encouraging, physicians and researchers agree that more study is necessary before angiogenic therapy can be used routinely. Angiogenic therapy is designed to stimulate new blood vessel growth in the hearts of patients with coronary artery disease.