A World First: The No-Chest-Cut Heart Bypass with Dr. Chris Bruce

Podcasts > The Heart of Innovation

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Saturday, April 11, 2026

Could we one day bypass heart blockages without ever opening the chest? In this episode of The Heart of Innovation, Kym McNicholas and Dr. James Joye, who invented PTAB (minimally invasive leg bypass device) sit down with Dr. Chris Bruce, the lead author of a groundbreaking NIH and Emory study that has achieved a world first: a fully percutaneous (catheter-based) coronary bypass. Known as the VECTOR procedure, this technique was recently used to save a patient whose anatomy made a traditional heart valve replacement life-threatening. By building an "extra-anatomic" bypass from the aorta to the coronary artery—all through a small puncture in the leg—Dr. Bruce and his team have opened a new frontier in cardiac care. We discuss how they "poked a hole" through the heart to save a life and whether this technology could eventually replace traditional bypass surgery for common blockages. #heartvalve #coronarybypass #heartbypass #heartsurgery #globalpadassociation #heartdisease