David CHAN, Man-Ping SUN
Abstract
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common cause of heart disease and the most important single cause of death in the affluent countries of the world including Hong Kong. It results mainly from progressive blockage of the coronary arteries by atherosclerosis. Clinical signs of coronary atherosclerosis often express as symptoms ranging from intermittent ischaemic chest pain to irreversible myocardial infarction. Other than modifying the risk factors, using pharmacological means and instituting percutaneous coronary intervention to manage CAD, surgery can also be considered to revascularize the ischaemic myocardium. The conventional surgical technique used is the Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), which can be performed with or without the use of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). This article describes the post-operative nursing care of a patient with CAD following conventional CABG.
Key words: Coronary artery disease, coronary artery bypass grafting, nursing care