CAB

Meaning of CAB: CAB most often abbreviates a coronary artery bypass, surgery that reroutes blood around a blocked heart vessel, though the same letters also denote a community advisory board.

Definition of CAB

CAB most commonly abbreviates coronary artery bypass, a type of heart surgery in which a healthy blood vessel taken from elsewhere in the body is used to create a new path for blood around a blocked or narrowed coronary artery. This restores blood flow, and with it oxygen and nutrients, to the affected area of heart muscle.

The vessel used for the new path is often taken from the leg, chest wall, or arm, and more than one bypass may be created during a single operation if several coronary arteries are affected. The procedure is also called aortocoronary bypass.

The same abbreviation, CAB, is also used elsewhere in medicine to refer to a community advisory board, a group that links researchers and the community during clinical trials, an entirely unrelated meaning, so the surrounding context determines which sense applies.