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What is Heart Surgery?

Heart-related problems do not always require surgery

By Apex HospitalPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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Heart-related problems do not always require surgery. Sometimes they can be resolved through lifestyle changes, medications, or non-surgical procedures. For example, catheter ablation uses energy to create small scars in the heart tissue to prevent abnormal electrical signals from passing through your heart. Coronary angioplasty is a minimally invasive surgery in which a stent is inserted into a narrowed or blocked coronary artery to keep it open. However, surgery is often required to solve problems such as heart failure, plaque buildup that partially or completely blocks coronary blood flow, heart valve defects, dilated or diseased major blood vessels (such as the aorta), and abnormal heart rhythms. Apex Wellness Hospital is the best Cardiac Hospital in Nashik with a team of experienced cardiologists who diagnose the heart for treating heart-related diseases.

What types of heart surgery are there?

There are many types of heart surgery. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health lists the following most common coronary surgery procedures:

Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) - In CABG, the most common type of cardiac surgery, the surgeon removes healthy arteries or veins from another part of the body and connects them to supply blood through blocked coronary arteries. The transplanted artery or vein bypasses the blocked part of the coronary artery and creates a new path for blood to flow to the heart muscle. This is usually done on more than one coronary artery in the same operation.

Repair or replacement of heart valves - Surgeons either repair the valve or replace it with an artificial valve or a biological valve made from pig, bovine, or human heart tissue. One repair option is to insert a catheter into a large blood vessel, guide it into the heart, and then inflate and deflate a small balloon at the tip of the catheter to expand the narrowed valve.

ICD - Drugs are usually the first choice for treatment of arrhythmia, which is a condition in which the heart beats too fast, too slow, or the rhythm is irregular. If the medication does not work, the surgeon can implant a pacemaker under the skin on the chest or abdomen and connect it to the ventricle with wires. When the sensor detects an abnormality, the device uses electrical pulses to control the heart rate. ICD works in a similar way, but it sends out electric shocks to restore normal heart rhythm when a dangerous arrhythmia is detected.

Labyrinth surgery - The surgeon forms a pattern of scar tissue in the upper chamber of the heart to redirect electrical signals along a controlled path to the lower chamber of the heart. Surgery blocked the parasitic electrical signals that cause atrial fibrillation, which is the most common type of severe arrhythmia.

Repair aneurysms - The weak part of the artery or heart wall is replaced with a patch or graft to repair the balloon-like bulge in the artery or myocardial wall.

Heart transplant - The diseased heart is removed and replaced with a healthy heart from the deceased donor.

Insert a ventricular assist device (VAD) or a total artificial heart (TAH) - VAD is a mechanical pump that supports heart function and blood flow. Two lower chambers are replaced by TAH.

In addition to these procedures, an increasingly common alternative to minimally invasive open-heart surgery is transcatheter structural heart surgery. This involves guiding an elongated flexible tube called a catheter to the heart through a blood vessel that can enter from the groin, thigh, abdomen, chest, neck, or collarbone. A small incision is necessary. This type of surgery includes the implantation of a transcatheter aortic valve, the replacement of a defective aortic valve with a valve made of animal tissue, the placement of MitraClip® to treat mitral valve abnormalities, and the placement of WATCHMAN® to treat patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation.

What is the recovery time?

Recovery time depends on the type of heart surgery you had. Surgeons will ask you to spend a day or more in the hospital. You will then be transferred to another part of the hospital for a few days until you go home.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute points out that the length of time you recover at home depends on the type of surgery you performed, your health before the surgery, and whether you experienced surgical complications. For example, a full recovery from traditional coronary artery bypass surgery may take 6 to 12 weeks or more.

Medical anesthesiologists are the most skilled medical experts in the fields of anesthesia care, pain management, and intensive care medicine. The education and training they receive can in some cases mean the difference between life and death.

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