Dr. Rene Favoloro of Argentina performed the first coro¬nary artery bypass graft (CABG) in 1967 at the Cleveland Clinic. He used a vein from a patient’s leg to bypass the obstruction in the coronary artery. Since that time, several million bypass operations have been performed worldwide. Coronary artery bypass grafting is a simple procedure: A vein from the patient’s leg is removed and inserted into the aorta as it leaves the heart and the other end of the vein is joined to the coronary artery below the blockage. Blood then flows from the aorta through the vein graft beyond the blockage to the coronary artery and to the heart muscle (see Fig. 1). When possible, surgeons prefer to use the internal mammary artery instead of using a vein graft to bypass the blockage in the important left anterior descending (LAD) artery.