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Editor: Jamie Sheller
Profession: Trasylol Attorney

Category: Trasylol Discussion

According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Trasylol has been approved for use in coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) which is commonly known as heart bypass surgery. This is the only use of the drug that the FDA has approved. In November of 2007 the FDA asked Bayer for a marketing suspension of the drug following preliminary data from the BART study in Canada. The data was showing an increased risk of death following Trasylol use.

CABG surgery is normally perforned on patients that have blockage in the arteries around the heart. So what happens during CABG surgery? It is an operation that takes about four hours to perform and the heart is normally stopped and the patient is placed on a bypass machine to oxygenate the blood and to continue circulation.

The most commonly used vessel for the bypass is the saphenous vein from the leg. Bypass grafting involves sewing the graft vessels to the coronary arteries beyond the narrowing or blockage. The other end of this vein is attached to the aorta. Chest wall arteries, particularly the left internal mammary artery, have been increasingly used as bypass grafts. This artery is separated from the chest wall and usually connected to the left anterior descending artery and/or one of its major branches beyond the blockage. The major advantage of using internal mammary arteries is that they tend to remain open longer than venous grafts.

Trasylol is used to reduce the amount of blood loss during CABG surgery. There have been reports that Trasylol is used during heart valve replacement surgery, but that is not a FDA approved use.