Excess cholesterol in the blood can cause Stroke and myocardial infarction. It is one of the major risk factors for atherosclerosis, a pathological basis for the stenosis (narrowing) and the obstruction of the arteries (cerebral and coronary above all) through the atherosclerotic plaque that increases inside the vessels until the occlusion of the blood flow in the artery (infarction).
The purpose of the surgical treatment is to overcome the obstacle constituted by a critical narrowing (stenosis) in one of the coronary arteries through a bridge (bypass) that restores the blood flow over the obstacle, thus favoring the supply of oxygenated blood to the myocardial cells of the coronary area.
Coronary arteries supply oxygen and nutrients to cardiac myocellulas. The contractility of the heart and therefore the pump function is proportional to the good function of the coronary circle. The reduction of coronary flow by stenosis of one or more coronary arteries or even occlusion causes damage to the tributary myocellulas of those arteries, which lack oxygen, suffer and die. This is the genesis of ischemia and myocardial infarction.
For its normal operation and management during cardiac surgery, it’s necessary the presence of specialized personnel, the cardiopulmonary bypass technician (perfusionist), who takes care, following the instructions of the cardiac surgeon, to start the CPB, to conduct it in the various phases of the intervention and to stop it when the cardiac surgeon completes the heart surgery.