Test of Time

More than 35,000 coronary bypass operations have been performed since 1967, when the surgical technique became generally known. But many doctors still question the long-term effectiveness of the operation, in which a vein is taken from a patient's leg and used to carry blood around an obstruction in the artery supplying the heart. Members of the surgical team that performed what was probably the first successful coronary bypass apparently believe the operation is effective. Drs. Michael DeBakey and Edward Dennis of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and Dr. H. Edward Garrett, now at the University of Tennessee, report in the A.M.A. Journal that their original coronary bypass, performed on a 42-year-old man back in 1964, has stood the test of time. Prior to the operation, the patient had been in pain and unable to work. Though he has been hospitalized twice since then, he has returned to work--as a truck driver.

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