Fifty Years of Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery

Brazilian Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery On May 9, 1967, 50 years ago, Dr. René G. Favaloro, an Argentine surgeon operating at the Cleveland Clinic, officially performed the first coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) of the modern era, historically, with many contributions. Alexis Carrel, in 1910, performed the first experience in dogs, using carotid anastomosis with the left coronary artery. However, he discouraged other surgeons to perform this procedure, because he believed the anastomosis should be performed in less than three minutes. In the 1940’s and 1950’s, other surgeons studied myocardial revascularization, such as Gordon Murray, in Toronto, and Vladimir Demikhov, in Moscow. In the 1960s, although several groups were studying revascularization, Michael DeBakey did not believe in its success and did not think it should be performed in humans. Robert Goetz was the one who performed and published the first coronary artery bypass graft surgery in humans in EDITORIAL