Gallery: heart bypass surgery

Newcastle manager Joe Kinnear is still recovering from a triple heart bypass operation after being admitted to hospital on 7 February. In December 2008, Bang reported that Robbie Williams's mother underwent emergency bypass surgery and last year in August, South Africans got to know 52-year-old Waldemar (Wally) Katze, who underwent bypass surgery live on national television.

Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer affecting people at a younger age than ever before, and the most common cause of death in South Africa after HIV/Aids. Coronary bypass surgery, however, has given thousands of patients a new lease on life: every year, 8 000 of these operations are performed in South Africa alone.

This routine operation treats blocked heart arteries by using blood vessels from other parts of the body to reroute the blood around the clogged artery. In this way, good blood flow to the heart muscle is re-established.

Want to know more? Then take a look at our Heart Bypass Photo Gallery, courtesy of YOU Pulse / Huisgenoot-POLS magazine.