What Is Heart Surgery?
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.
Heart surgery is used to correct heart problems in
children and adults. This article discusses heart surgeries for adults. For
more information about heart surgeries for children, see the Diseases and
Conditions Index articles on
congenital
heart defects,
holes
in the heart, and
tetralogy
of Fallot.
Overview
The most common type of heart surgery for 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. CABG relieves chest pain and reduces the risk of
heart
attack.
Heart surgery also is done to:
- Repair or replace valves that control blood flow
through the heart
- Repair abnormal or damaged structures in the
heart
- Implant medical devices that regulate heart
rhythms or blood flow
- Replace a damaged heart with a healthy heart from
a donor (heart
transplant)
Traditional heart surgery, often called "open heart
surgery," is done by opening the chest wall to operate on the heart. Almost
always, the chest is opened by cutting through a patient's breastbone. Once the
heart is exposed, the patient is connected to a heart-lung bypass machine. The
machine takes over the pumping action of the heart. This allows surgeons to
operate on a still heart.
In recent years, new ways of doing heart surgery
have been developed. One new way is called off-pump, or beating heart, surgery.
It's 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.
These new methods may reduce risks and speed up
recovery time. Studies are under way to compare these new types of heart
surgery to traditional open-heart surgery. The results of these studies will
help doctors decide the best procedure to use for each patient.
Outlook
The results of heart surgery in adults are often
excellent. For very ill people with severe heart problems, heart surgery can
reduce symptoms, improve quality of life, and increase lifespan.
To understand heart surgery, it's helpful to know
how a normal heart works. See the Diseases and Conditions Index article on
How
the Heart Works for more information.
September 2007 |