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©2013 UpToDate ® Print Email Coronary artery bypass graft surgery During coronary artery bypass surgery, the surgeon removes a piece of blood vessel from the leg, chest, arm, or belly. Then the surgeon uses that piece of blood vessel (called a "graft") to reroute blood around the blocked artery. The surgery is called "bypass surgery" because it bypasses the blockage. Some people have more than one blocked artery bypassed. In this picture, the graft came from a vein in the leg called the "saphenous vein." But grafts can come from other places, too.