What patients do after surgery is crucial to cardiac health.

Bypass operations restore blood flow to endangered heart muscles, but they can’t prevent further cardiovascular problems. To maintain continued protection, patients and their doctors need to work together during surgery’s sometimes-difficult aftermath.

Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) is the most frequently performed operation in the U.S. — some 500,000 procedures annually. Typically, it results in a stronger heart but a temporarily weaker body because of its highly invasive nature. Usually it requires cutting through the sternum to gain access to the heart, and temporarily stopping the beating so the surgeon can stitch vessels — grafts — in place to provide detours for blood around arterial blockages. “Recovery from bypass is…

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