What To Expect During Total Artificial Heart Surgery

Total artificial heart (TAH) surgery is complex and can take between 5 and 9 hours. It requires many experts and assistants. As many as 15 people may be in the operating room during surgery.

The team for TAH surgery includes:

• Surgeons who do the operation
• Surgical nurses who assist the surgeons
• Anesthesiologists who are in charge of the medicine that makes you sleep during surgery
• Perfusionists who are in charge of the heart-lung machine that keeps blood flowing through your body while the TAH is put in your chest
• Engineers who are trained to assemble the TAH and make sure it's working properly

Before the surgery, you're given anesthesia (an-es-THE-ze-ah) to make you sleep. During the surgery, the anesthesiologist checks your heartbeat, blood pressure, oxygen levels, and breathing. A breathing tube is placed in your windpipe through your throat. This tube is connected to a ventilator (a machine that helps you breathe).

A cut is made down the center of your chest. The chest bone is then cut and your ribcage is opened so that the surgeon can get to your heart.

Medicines are used to stop your heart. This allows the surgeon to operate on your heart while it's not beating. A heart-lung machine keeps oxygen-rich blood moving through your body.

The surgeons remove your heart's ventricles and attach the TAH to the upper chambers of your heart. When everything is attached properly, the heart-lung machine is switched off and the TAH starts pumping.