ted to keep it open for blood to pass through. The vein was then blocked above the new channel which had been created.
Blood now flowed in the opposite direction, towards the heart muscle, which had previously been starved of oxygen.Dr Timothy Gardner, spokesman for the American Heart Association said: "The technique described in this report is ingenious."But he said it could only be used for a specific type of bypass, where an artery is open in the first portion, closed in the middle and still supplying good heart muscle.Further trials are to be carried out, with 20 patients set to receive the operation in Germany, and clinical trials due to begin in the US later this year.