Key Points

• Heart surgery is done to correct problems with the heart. More than half a million heart surgeries are done each year in the United States for a variety of heart problems.
• The most common type of heart surgery in adults is coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). During CABG, surgeons use healthy arteries or veins taken from another part of the body to bypass (that is, go around) blocked arteries.
• Heart surgery also is done to repair or replace valves that control blood flow through the heart, repair structures in the heart, implant devices to regulate heart rhythms, or replace a damaged heart with a healthy heart from a donor.
• Traditional open-heart surgery is done by opening the chest wall to operate on the heart. The patient is connected to a heart-lung bypass machine. This machine takes over the pumping action of the heart, makes sure the blood gets enough oxygen, and allows surgeons to operate on a still heart.
• In recent years, new ways of doing heart surgery have been developed. One new way is off-pump, or beating heart, surgery. This is like traditional open-heart surgery, but it doesn't use a heart-lung bypass machine. Minimally invasive heart surgery uses smaller incisions (cuts) than traditional open-heart surgery. Some types of minimally invasive heart surgery use a heart-lung bypass machine and others don't.
• Studies are under way to compare new types of heart surgery to traditional heart surgery.
• Different types of heart surgery are used to fix different heart problems. Heart surgery is used to bypass blocked arteries, repair or replace heart valves, treat arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats), repair aneurysms, treat angina (chest pain or discomfort), and replace a diseased heart with a healthy one.
• Heart surgery is used to treat people who have severe heart diseases and conditions when other treatments have failed.
• Your doctors will determine whether you need heart surgery based on the kind of heart problem you have, your history and past treatment for heart problems, your family's history of heart problems, whether you have other health conditions, your age, and your general health.
• What happens before, during, and after heart surgery depends on the type of surgery you have. CABG, the most common type of heart surgery, usually takes 3 to 5 hours.
• After surgery, your doctor will let you know how to care for yourself. You may need followup medical care, lifestyle changes, medicines, or cardiac rehabilitation.
• The risks of heart surgery include bleeding, infection, fever, reaction to the medicine used to make you sleep, irregular heartbeats, and death. (The risk of death is higher in people who are already very sick.) Use of a heart-lung bypass machine can cause blood clots to form in your blood vessels and block blood flow.
• The results of heart surgery often are excellent. For very ill people who have severe heart problems, heart surgery can reduce symptoms, improve quality of life, and increase lifespan.