Open Heart Surgery Watch a video of open heart surgery. The file is about 1751k and opens in a small pop up window. The video above was taken during coronary bypass surgery using a camera worn on the surgeon's head. The video graphically shows the inside of the chest cavity. As the patient's chest cavity is opened, notice the vapor that rises as the surgeon cauterizes the blood vessels. The patient is attached to a heart-lung machine that keeps the blood circulating while the heart is stopped. After the heart stops beating, an artery (the mammary artery) from the chest cavity is grafted onto the heart at both ends, bypassing the blocked coronary artery. Finally, the patient is taken off of the heart-lung machine. The heart begins to beat again. For more information about a Healthy Heart, please read also: |