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Cardiac Surgery
Technical Note
Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG)
During CABG (coronary artery bypass grafting) surgery, the grafts are commonly abbreviated (i.e.
LIMA-LAD, SVG-RCA). The graft (conduits) are listed first followed by a hyphen and then by the target
coronary artery whose blockage is bypassed. Below is a listing of the most common abbreviations.
Grafts/Conduits
Arterial Grafts
LIMA (Left Internal Mammary Artery)*
RIMA (Right Internal Mammary Artery)*
RAD (Radial Artery from the arm)
Vein Grafts
SVG (Saphenous vein from the leg)
* LIMA & RIMA are known as pedicle grafts
because their proximal end (where the artery
begins) is left intact. The distal end of the
artery is cut and moved over to the heart to
function as a bypass graft.
Target Coronary Arteries
Left Heart
LAD (Left Anterior Descending Artery)
Cx (Circumflex Artery)
Dx (Diagonal Artery)
OM (Obtuse Marginal Artery)
Right Heart
RCA (Right Coronary Artery)
PDA (Posterior Descending Artery)
Fig. 1: LIMA - LAD Fig. 2: LIMA - Cx Fig. 3: RIMA - RCA
Fig. 4: SVG - Cx
Common bypass grafts are the LIMA - LAD and LIMA - Cx on the left side of the heart (Figs. 1,2). Figure 3 shows a
right internal mammary artery (RIMA) anastomosed to the right coronary artery (RIMA - RCA) the right side of the
heart. Fig. 4 shows a saphenous vein graft harvested from the leg anastomosed to the aorta proximally and the
circumflex artery (Cx) distally (SVG - Cx).
CABG(CV-43-tn)RevC2013USltr
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