The patient died from unrelated complications, but Sabiston's technique and other surgeons' improvements on it led to the development of surgical coronary revascularization as it exists today.

[2] After his military service, Sabiston returned to Johns Hopkins University to complete his residency and fellowship training, under the direction of Alfred Blalock.

In 1952, he was given an instructorship at Hopkins during his year as a Chief Resident, and then an assistant professorship in Surgery in 1953 with a joint appointment as an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

[3] In 1961, Sabiston was granted a Fulbright scholarship to study at the Hospital for Sick Children and Nuffield Department of Surgery at the University of Oxford.

[8] Early in his tenure in Durham, Sabiston helped to desegregate the surgical clinics and wards at the Duke University Hospital.