22. Surgical Treatment of Coronary Artery Disease

Development of coronary angiogram by Sones at the Cleveland Clinic during the early 1960s made possible precise ­identification of anatomical coronary artery disease and laid foundation for modern coronary artery surgery [1]. In 1967 Favaloro at the Cleveland Clinic began performing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) with reversed vein grafts [2]. In 1968 Green et al. [3] at New York University used a dissecting microscope to perform anastomosis of the internal mammary artery (IMA) to the left anterior descending artery (LAD). Largely overlooked by the western world is the first CABG, in which an IMA was anastomozed to the LAD, was performed by Russian surgeon Kolessov [4] prior to 1967.