Conventionally Bypass Heart Surgery is done using general Anaesthesia. Recently we have conducted Bypass Surgery without general anaesthesia because of compelling indication.

According to Dr. C.N.Manjunath, Patient Sri. Guruswamy aged 55 years was suffering from Chest Pain and his Coronary Angiogram revealed multiple blockages in the 3 arteries, he had suffered from Pulmonary Tuberculosis 10yeras ago, as a result his lung functions were bad. In view of his severe lung disease, he was not a candidate for general anaesthesia and artificial ventilation. Hence, he was subjected to bypass surgery on epidural spinal anaesthesia without using any ventilator. Throughout operation, the patient was consciousness, alert and at the same time he was not feeling any pain. He was also listening to the conversations of the surgical team viz., Doctors, Anesthetist, Technicians and OT Staff. Pre-operatively he was given a very good counseling regarding his awake surgery he co-operated very well without any fear. Dr. Ashok Kumar, Professor of Cardiac Thoracic surgery and his team successfully conducted this beating heart bypass surgery on awake patient, had uneventful post-op course and discharged.