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. |