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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.
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What Are the Risks
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