Vascular grafting

A vascular bypass is a surgical procedure performed to redirect blood flow from one area to another by reconnecting blood vessels. Often, this is done to bypass around a diseased artery, from an area of normal blood flow to another relatively normal area. It is commonly performed due to inadequate blood flow (ischemia) caused by atherosclerosis, as a part of organ transplantation, or for vascular access in hemodialysis. In general, someone's own vein (autograft) is the preferred graft material (or conduit) for a vascular bypass, but other types of grafts such as polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon), polyethylene terephthalate (Dacron), or a different person's vein (allograft) are also commonly used. Arteries can also serve as vascular grafts. A surgeon sews the graft to the source and target vessels by hand using surgical suture, creating a surgical anastomosis. A vascular bypass is a surgical procedure performed to redirect blood flow from one area to another by reconnecting blood vessels. Often, this is done to bypass around a diseased artery, from an area of normal blood flow to another relatively normal area. It is commonly performed due to inadequate blood flow (ischemia) caused by atherosclerosis, as a part of organ transplantation, or for vascular access in hemodialysis. In general, someone's own vein (autograft) is the preferred graft material (or conduit) for a vascular bypass, but other types of grafts such as polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon), polyethylene terephthalate (Dacron), or a different person's vein (allograft) are also commonly used. Arteries can also serve as vascular grafts. A surgeon sews the graft to the source and target vessels by hand using surgical suture, creating a surgical anastomosis. Common bypass sites include the heart (coronary artery bypass surgery) to treat coronary artery disease, and the legs, to treat peripheral vascular disease. Cardiac bypass is performed when the arteries that bring blood to the heart muscle (coronary arteries) become clogged by plaque. Such a condition may cause chest pain from angina pectoris or a heart attack. In the legs, bypass grafting is used to treat peripheral vascular disease, acute limb ischemia, aneurysms and trauma. While there are many anatomical arrangements for vascular bypass grafts in the lower extremities depending on the location of the disease, the principle is the same: to restore blood flow to an area without normal flow. For example, a femoral-popliteal bypass ('fem-pop') might be used if the femoral artery is occluded. A fem-pop bypass may refer to the above- or below-knee popliteal artery. Other anatomic descriptions of lower extremity bypasses include: A vascular bypass is often created to serve as an access point to the circulatory system for hemodialysis. Such a bypass is referred to as an arteriovenous fistula if it directly connects a vein to an artery without using synthetic material. In the skull, when blood flow is blocked or a damaged cerebral artery prevents adequate blood flow to the brain, a cerebral artery bypass may be performed to improve or restore flow to an oxygen-deprived (ischemic) area of the brain.