What are the indications for CABG?

Indications are:
1) Unstable Angina.
2)Prolonging Life
others are:
The population that nearly always benefits from CABG does not include everyone with CAD.

The subgroups that benefit are

3 groups of patients-

1) those with triple vessel disease AND LV dysfunction,

2) those with left main disease ,

3) lastly those with Diabetes mellitus.

If someone has a coronary (heart) blood vessel that is blocked, they do a bypass to reroute the blood around the blockage.

Indications for CABG:
Several treatments for coronary artery disease exist. They include:

medical management (statins, antihypertensives, smoking cessation, tight blood sugar control in diabetics),
percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and
CABG surgery.
Both PCI and CABG are more effective than medical management at relieving symptoms,[3] e.g. angina, dyspnea, fatigue.

CABG is the preferred treatment when there is:[3]

disease of the left main coronary artery (LMCA). LMCA disease is associated with sudden death; therefore, lesions of the LMCA are sometimes referred to as widow makers.
disease of all three coronary vessels (LAD, LCX and RCA) and one or more of the following:
diabetes mellitus,
left ventricular dysfunction (i.e. low ejection fraction) and
diffuse disease not amendable to treatment with a PCI.

Source: Wikipedia

Coronary Artery Disease CAD) is the indication for CABG. However, not all persons with CAD require CABG. Some CAD patients are treated with angioplasty. Angioplasty may or may not include stinting. The choice of treatment is dependant upon how severe the blockage is, where it is and the number of blockages.

I had CABG Oct. 4, 2006. I had 5 bypasses done. With that many it only made since to do the CABG. Probably, I only need 1 or 2 bypasses and the rest could have been done with stents. But since I was being opened upanyway, doing the bypass was a better choice since the long term prognosis is better with a bypass.

Here is three links that may help you more:

MedlinePlus - Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/coron...

MedlinePlus - Angioplasty
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/angio...

MedlinePlus - Coronary Artery Disease
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/coron...

Good luck,
Terry