Bypass surgery is a surgical procedure
performed to relieve angina and reduce the
risk of death from coronary artery disease.
Arteries or veins from elsewhere in the
patient's body are grafted to the coronary
arteries to bypass atherosclerotic
narrowings and improve the blood supply to
the coronary circulation supplying the
myocardium.
Angioplasty is the technique of mechanically
widening a narrowed or obstructed blood vessel;
typically as a result of atherosclerosis. An
empty and collapsed balloon on a guide wire,
known as a balloon catheter, is passed into the
narrowed locations and then inflated to a fixed
size using water pressures some 75 to 500 times
normal blood pressure (6 to 20 atmospheres). The
balloon crushes the fatty deposits, so opening
up the blood vessel to improved flow, and the
balloon is then collapsed and withdrawn.
An aortic aneurysm is a general term for any
swelling (dilation or aneurysm) of the aorta,
usually representing an underlying weakness in
the wall of the aorta at that location. While
the stretched vessel may occasionally cause
discomfort, a greater concern is the risk of
rupture, which causes severe pain; massive
internal hemorrhage; and, without prompt
treatment, results in a quick death.
A form of congenital heart defect that enables
blood flow between the left and right atria via
the interatrial septum. The interatrial septum
is the tissue that divides the right and left
atria. Without this septum, or if there is a
defect in this septum, it is possible for blood
to travel from the left side of the heart to the
right side of the heart, or vice versa.
A defect in the ventricular septum, the wall
dividing the left and right ventricles of the
heart. The ventricular septum consists of an
inferior muscular and superior membranous
portion and is extensively innervated with
conducting cardiomyocytes.
