Open Heart Surgery and All Information about it
Due to the increase in the mortality rate caused by heart diseases around the world, many concerns about heart surgeries have arisen, especially the open heart one. In this article, Healing Consulting provides you with all necessary information about open heart surgery and its surgical process.
Heart Diseases
There are many diseases that affect the heart, or the cardiac muscle in the body. Their causes might be congenital or age-related ones due to inherited health conditions or unhealthy lifestyle represented in excessive smoking and obesity caused by having a lot of fatty food. Heart diseases also occur as a result of some accompanying diseases, such as high blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes. In fact, heart diseases affect the pulse or weaken the heart muscle causing morbidity or inflammation of the inner lining of the heart chambers and valves, as well as the effect of some heart diseases on the blood vessels; such diseases result in vasodilation, vascular narrowing, or vascular blockage, which all lead to heart attacks and strokes. Other diseases can affect the heart valves and disrupt their proper function. Indeed, to avoid the risk of suffering from these diseases, consulting a cardiologist is highly needed whenever having any chest pain with accompanying conditions, such as shortness of breath, fatigue, and sudden loss of consciousness; for an early, accurate diagnosis of the condition and a proper treatment.
Open Heart Surgery
It is a traditional open surgery in which the chest is cut open and the operation is performed by the assistance of heart-lung machine. Moreover, the aim of this surgery is to treat chronic heart diseases that do not sound to be responding to drug treatment. According to some statistics issued by the British Heart Foundation, coronary artery repair surgery, or coronary bypass in patients with atherosclerosis is the most common heart disease, in addition to heart valve repair and replacement operations. Furthermore, open heart operation is a treatment for congenital heart diseases, and it is useful for performing implantation of both a heart mesh and a balloon pump to improve heart rhythm. The surgery has also proven efficient at performing heart transplant for patients with acute heart failure.
Open Heart Surgical Process
Before performing the surgery, the patient undergoes a set of medical examinations and other pre-operative procedures, such as stopping taking some medicines, especially blood thinners, and the use of antiseptic soap for bathing. The procedure requires general anesthesia; it is performed by making an incision and cutting through the breastbone and spread apart of the rib cageexposing the heart. In turn, the heart-lung machine is used to divert blood from the heart to the device, while the body remains supplied with blood and oxygen. Then, according to the cardiac surgery type, the surgeon either replaces the damaged valve, opens the blockage in the artery, as in CABG surgery procedure or coronary artery bypass grafting procedure or installs an artificial heart mesh. Congenital heart defect can also be treated at this phase, in addition to the possibility of a new heart implant. The duration of the open heart operation is 3-6 hours depending on the type of the heart disease.
Post-Operative Instructions
Open heart surgery recovery timeline depends on following post-operative instructions; these instructions include keeping the surgical wound or the incision clean and not exposing it to water, in addition to taking prescribed medicines regularly, taking enough rest, and following a healthy, balanced diet.
In brief, open heart surgery is a treatment for patients with chronic heart diseases; a procedure that allows them to start a new, healthy life. It is also worth noting that Healing Consulting medical team has been making tremendous effort to provide patients, suffering from heart diseases, especially the elderly, with the best medical care, during and after heart surgeries. We also offer our free consulting service to answer all enquires in this regard. Therefore, do not hesitate to contact us.
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