Heart Bypass Surgery
Your heart depends on coronary arteries to supply life-sustaining blood. When your arteries are damaged by high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, or smoking, your heart becomes starved for oxygen. You may experience symptoms of pain or numbness in your chest, arms, jaw, throat or upper back. This pain is commonly referred to as angina.
To access you heart, your surgeon will make an incision down the middle of your chest and separate your breastbone or sternum. Following surgery the breastbone will be reconnected with wires. In most cases the breastbone heals in 8 to 12 weeks.
Since delicate surgery is more difficult to perform on a beating heart, your heart may be stopped temporarily and a heart-lung machine will be utilized to circulate your blood. The machine supplies your blood with oxygen and pumps it back through your body. Once surgery is over, your own heart and lungs will resume normal functions.
In order to create a new pathway around the blocked part of your artery, a healthy blood vessel from another part of your body will be used to restore blood flow. These vessels or grafts may be harvested from the chest (internal mammary arteries), arm (radial arteries), or leg (saphenous veins). One end of the graft vessel will be sewn to an opening in the coronary artery below the blockage site. The other end is attached to the aorta.
Heart Valve Surgery
Your heart valves act as doorways that open and close to let blood flow between the chambers of your heart. Valve problems can cause a variety of symptoms including wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath, fatigue, dizziness, chest pain, and swollen ankles or feet. Fortunately, heart valves can be surgically repaired or replaced.
Valve Replacement
If a valve cannot be surgically repaired, it may be replaced with a substitute prosthetic valve. Replacement valves may be either mechanical or biological. Mechanical valves are manufactured from manmade materials. Lifetime therapy with an anticoagulant or blood thinner is needed to prevent blood clots from forming on or around this type of valve. Biological or tissue valves are harvested from pig, cow, or human donors. These valves don’t last as long as mechanical valves, but anticoagulant therapy may not be needed.
Your doctor will select the best valve for you depending on your age, the size of your valve, how well your heart is working, and your tolerance for anticoagulants.
To access you heart, your surgeon will make an incision down the middle of your chest and separate your breastbone or sternum. Following surgery the breastbone will be reconnected with wires. In most cases the breastbone heals in 8 to 12 weeks.
An incision is made in your heart or aorta. Part or all of the damaged valve and its supportive structures may be cut away and removed. The correct-sized replacement valve is positioned in the valve opening and sewn firmly into place. The valve’s performance will be tested before your chest incision is closed.
