Show heart surgery. Open heart surgery, stages and recovery period. Postoperative period and rehabilitation

Review

Open heart surgery is a surgical procedure in which the chest is opened and the muscles, valves, or arteries of the heart are affected.

Coronary artery bypass surgery is the most common adult heart surgery, according to the US National Heart, Lung, and Hematology Institute (NHLBI). During this surgery, a healthy artery or vein is transplanted (attached) to a blocked coronary (heart) artery. As a result, the transplanted artery delivers blood to the heart bypassing the blocked artery (NHLBI).

Open heart surgery is sometimes referred to as conventional heart surgery. Today, many new procedures on the heart require only small incisions rather than large incisions. That is, the concept of open heart surgery can sometimes be misleading.

The reasons

Open heart surgery allows coronary artery bypass surgery. Coronary artery bypass surgery may be required for patients with coronary artery disease.

Coronary artery disease occurs when the vessels that carry blood and oxygen to the heart become narrow and inelastic. This disease is known as atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis occurs when fatty deposits build up on the walls of the coronary arteries. Plaque narrows the arteries, making it difficult for blood to pass through them. If blood is not supplied to the heart properly, a heart attack can occur.

Open heart surgery is also performed to:

restore or replace blood vessels, which will allow blood to pass through the heart; repair damaged or abnormal areas of the heart; install medical devices that will help the heart work properly; replace the damaged heart with a donor one (transplantation).

Operation

Coronary artery bypass surgery takes four to six hours, according to the National Institutes of Health. Consider what it is, step by step.

The patient receives general anesthesia. He falls asleep and feels no pain from the operation. After making a 20 to 25 centimeter incision in the chest, the surgeon cuts all or part of the breast bone to gain access to the heart. Once the heart opens, the patient is connected to a heart-lung machine. It diverts blood away from the heart so that the surgeon can operate. Some new technologies allow to refuse this device. The surgeon uses a healthy vein or artery to create a new path around the blocked artery. The chest is held together with wire, which remains inside the body. The initial incision is sutured. (NIH)

Occasionally, a chest plate is used in high-risk patients, especially in the elderly and those who have undergone repeated surgery. In this case, the breast bone after the operation is connected with small titanium plates.

Risks

Risks in coronary artery bypass surgery:

wound infection of the chest (most common in obesity, diabetes, repeated bypass surgery); heart attack or stroke; violation of the heart rhythm; damage to the lungs or kidneys; chest pain, subfebrile body temperature; memory loss or blurred memories; blood clots; blood loss; difficulty breathing.

According to the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCM), the use of a heart-lung machine increases the risks. These risks include stroke and memory problems (UCM).

Training

Tell your doctor about all medicines you take, including over-the-counter drugs, vitamins, and herbs. Report any health problems, including herpes, infection, colds, flu, fever.

Two weeks before surgery, your doctor may ask you to refrain from smoking and to stop taking vasoconstrictor drugs such as aspirin, ibuprofen, or naproxen.

On the eve of the operation, you will be asked to wash yourself with a special soap. It destroys bacteria on the skin and reduces the chance of infection after surgery. You may be asked not to eat or drink anything after midnight.

You will receive further instructions when you arrive at the hospital for your operation.

Rehabilitation

When you wake up after surgery, you will have two or three tubes in your chest. They are needed to drain fluid from the area around the heart.

You may have intravenous tubes that will provide you with fluids.

You may have a catheter (thin tube) placed in your bladder to drain urine.

You may also have machines connected to you to monitor your heart. Nurses will be nearby to help you if needed.

Most likely, you will spend the first night in the intensive care unit. After three to seven days, you will be transferred to a regular ward.

Long

You must be ready for a gradual recovery. Improvement will come in about six weeks, and in about six months you will feel the full benefits of the operation. So, the outlook is optimistic for many people, the shunt can work for years to come.

Nevertheless, the operation does not exclude re-occlusion of the vessels. The state of health will support the following measures:

proper nutrition; restriction of salty, fatty and sweet foods; maintaining physical activity; to give up smoking; control of high blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Heart surgeries are very common these days. Modern cardiac surgery and vascular surgery are very advanced. Surgical intervention is prescribed in the case when conservative drug treatment does not help, and, accordingly, the normalization of the patient's condition is impossible without surgery.

For example, heart disease can only be cured by surgery, this is necessary in the case when blood circulation is severely disturbed due to pathology.

And as a result, a person feels bad and severe complications begin to develop. These complications can lead not only to disability, but also to death.

Often prescribed surgical treatment of coronary heart disease. Since it can lead to myocardial infarction. Due to a heart attack, the walls of the cavities of the heart or aorta become thinner and protrusion appears. This pathology can also be cured only by surgery. Quite often, operations are performed due to disturbed heart rhythm (RFA).

They also perform heart transplantation, that is, a transplant. This is necessary when there is a complex of pathologies due to which the myocardium is not able to function. Today, such an operation prolongs the life of the patient by an average of 5 years. After such an operation, the patient is put on disability.

Operations can be carried out urgently, urgently, or a planned intervention is prescribed. It depends on the severity of the patient's condition. An emergency operation is performed immediately, immediately after the diagnosis is established. If such an intervention is not carried out, then the death of the patient may occur.

Such operations are often performed on newborns immediately after birth with congenital heart disease. In this case, even minutes are important.

Urgent operations do not require fast execution. In this case, the patient is prepared for some time. As a rule, it is several days.

A planned operation is prescribed if at this time there is no danger to life, but it must be carried out to prevent complications. Doctors prescribe surgery on the myocardium only if it is necessary.

Invasive Research

Invasive methods for examining the heart are to conduct catheterization. That is, the study is carried out through a catheter, which can be installed both in the cavity of the heart and in the vessel. With the help of these studies, you can determine some indicators of the work of the heart.

For example, blood pressure in any part of the myocardium, as well as determine how much oxygen is in the blood, evaluate cardiac output, vascular resistance.

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Invasive methods allow you to study the pathology of the valves, their size and degree of damage. This study takes place without opening the chest. Cardiac catheterization allows you to take an intracardiac electrocardiogram and phonocardiogram. This method is also used to monitor the effectiveness of drug therapy.

Such studies include:

Angiography. This is a method for which a contrast agent is used. It is injected into the cavity of the heart or vessel for accurate visualization and detection of pathologies. coronary angiography. This study allows you to assess the degree of damage to the coronary vessels, it helps doctors understand whether surgery is needed, and if not, what therapy is suitable for this patient. Ventriculography. This is a radiopaque study that will allow you to determine the condition of the ventricles, the presence of pathology. All ventricular parameters can be examined, such as cavity volume, cardiac output, cardiac relaxation and excitability measurements.

With selective coronary angiography, contrast is injected into one of the coronary arteries (right or left).

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Coronary angiography is often performed in patients with angina pectoris 3-4 functional class. In this case, it is resistant to drug therapy. Doctors need to decide what type of surgical treatment is needed. It is also important to carry out this procedure for unstable angina.

Also, invasive procedures include punctures and probing of the heart cavities. With the help of probing, it is possible to diagnose heart defects and pathologies in the LV, for example, it can be tumors, or thrombosis. To do this, use the femoral vein (right), a needle is inserted into it through which the conductor passes. The needle diameter becomes about 2 mm.

When performing invasive studies, local anesthesia is used. The incision is small, about 1-2 cm. This is necessary to expose the desired vein for the installation of the catheter.

These studies are carried out in different clinics and their cost is quite high.

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Surgery for heart disease

Heart defects include

stenosis of the heart valves; insufficiency of heart valves; septal defects (interventricular, interatrial).

valve stenosis

These pathologies lead to many disorders in the work of the heart, that is, the goals of operations for defects are to relieve the load from the heart muscle, restore the normal functioning of the ventricle, as well as restore contractile function and reduce pressure in the heart cavities.

To eliminate these defects, the following surgical interventions are performed:

Valve replacement (prosthetics)

This type of operation is done on the open heart, that is, after opening the chest. In this case, the patient is connected to a special apparatus for cardiopulmonary bypass. The operation consists in replacing the affected valve with an implant. They can be mechanical (in the form of a disk or ball in a grid, they are made of synthetic materials) and biological (made from animal biological material).

Valve implant placement

Plastic defects of partitions

It can be carried out in 2 options, for example, suturing a defect or its plastic. Suturing is carried out if the size of the hole is less than 3 cm. Plastic surgery is performed using synthetic tissue or autopericardium.

Valvuloplasty

With this type of operation, implants are not used, but simply expand the lumen of the affected valve. At the same time, a balloon is introduced into the lumen of the valve, which is inflated. It should be noted that such an operation is performed only on young people, as for the elderly, they are only entitled to open-heart intervention.

Balloon valvuloplasty

Often, after heart disease surgery, a person is given a disability.

Operations on the aorta

Open surgeries include:

Prosthetics of the ascending aorta. At the same time, a valve-containing conduit is installed; this prosthesis has a mechanical aortic valve. Prosthetics of the ascending aorta, while the aortic valve is not implanted. Prosthetics of the ascending artery and its arch. Surgery to implant a stent graft in the ascending aorta. This is an endovascular intervention.

Prosthetics of the ascending aorta is the replacement of this section of the artery. This is necessary in order to prevent serious consequences, for example, a break. To do this, prosthetics are used by opening the chest, and endovascular or intravascular interventions are also performed. In this case, a special stent is installed in the affected area.

Of course, open-heart surgery is more effective, because in addition to the main pathology - aortic aneurysm, it is possible to correct the accompanying one, for example, stenosis or valve insufficiency, etc. And the endovascular procedure gives a temporary effect.

Aortic dissection

When prosthetics of the aortic arch are used:

Open distal anastomosis. This is when the prosthesis is installed, so that it does not affect its branches; Arc semi-replacement. This operation consists in replacing the artery where the ascending aorta passes into the arch and, if required, replacing the concave surface of the arch; Subtotal prosthetics. This is when the replacement of branches (1 or 2) is required during prosthetics of the arterial arch; Complete prosthetics. In this case, the arch is prosthetized together with all supra-aortic vessels. This is a complex intervention that can cause neurological complications. After such an intervention, a person is given a disability.

Coronary artery bypass grafting (ACS)

CABG is open-heart surgery that uses a patient's vessel as a shunt. This heart operation is needed in order to create a bypass for blood that will not affect the occlusive section of the coronary artery.

That is, this shunt is installed on the aorta and brought to the area of the coronary artery not affected by atherosclerosis.

This method is quite effective in the treatment of coronary heart disease. Due to the installed shunt, the blood flow to the heart increases, which means that ischemia and angina pectoris do not appear.

CABG is prescribed if there is angina pectoris, in which even the smallest loads cause seizures. Also, indications for CABG are lesions of all coronary arteries, and if an aneurysm of the heart has formed.

Coronary artery bypass grafting

During CABG, the patient is put into general anesthesia, and then, after opening the chest, all manipulations are performed. This operation can be performed with or without cardiac arrest. And also, depending on the severity of the pathology, the doctor decides whether it is necessary to connect the patient to a heart-lung machine. The duration of CABG can be 3-6 hours, it all depends on the number of shunts, that is, on the number of anastomoses.

As a rule, the role of the shunt is performed by a vein from the lower limb, and sometimes a part of the internal thoracic vein, the radial artery, is also used.

Today, CABG is performed, which is performed with minimal access to the heart, while the heart continues to work. Such an intervention is considered not as traumatic as the others. In this case, the chest is not opened, the incision is made between the ribs and a special expander is also used so as not to affect the bones. This type of CABG lasts 1 to 2 hours.

The operation is performed by 2 surgeons, while one makes an incision and opens the sternum, the other operates on the limb to take a vein.

After carrying out all the necessary manipulations, the doctor installs drains and closes the chest.

CABG significantly reduces the likelihood of a heart attack. Angina pectoris does not appear after surgery, which means that the quality and duration of the patient's life increase.

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA)

RFA is a procedure that is performed under local anesthesia, since the basis is catheterization. Such a procedure is carried out in order to exfoliate the cells that cause arrhythmia, that is, the focus. This happens through a catheter-conductor, which conducts an electric current. As a result, tissue formations are removed by RFA.

RF catheter ablation

After conducting an electrophysical study, the doctor determines where the source is located, which causes a rapid heartbeat. These sources can be formed along the conducting paths, as a result of which an anomaly of the rhythm manifests itself. It is RFA that neutralizes this anomaly.

RFA is carried out in case of:

when drug therapy does not affect the arrhythmia, and also if such therapy causes side effects. If the patient has Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. This pathology is perfectly neutralized by RFA. If a complication may occur, such as cardiac arrest.

It should be noted that RFA is well tolerated by patients, since there are no large incisions and opening of the sternum.

The catheter is inserted through a puncture in the thigh. Only the area through which the catheter is inserted is anesthetized.

The guide catheter reaches the myocardium, and then a contrast agent is injected. With the help of contrast, the affected areas become visible, and the doctor directs the electrode to them. After the electrode acted on the source, the tissues are scarred, which means that they will not be able to conduct the impulse. After RFA, a bandage is not needed.

Carotid surgery

There are such types of operations on the carotid artery:

Prosthetics (used with a large lesion); Stenting is performed if stenosis is diagnosed. In this case, the lumen is increased by installing a stent; Eversion endarterectomy - at the same time, atherosclerotic plaques are removed along with the inner lining of the carotid artery; Carotid endarectomy.

These operations are performed under both general and local anesthesia. More often under general anesthesia, as the procedure is performed in the neck and there are discomfort.

The carotid artery is occluded, and in order to continue the blood supply, shunts are installed, which are bypass routes.

Classical endarterectomy is done if long plaque lesions are diagnosed. During this operation, the plaque is peeled off and removed. Next, the vessel is washed. Sometimes it is still necessary to fix the inner shell, this is done with special seams. At the end, the artery is sutured with a special synthetic medical material.

Endarterectomy of the carotid arteries

Eversion endartectomy is performed in such a way that the inner layer of the carotid artery at the site of the plaque is removed. And after that they fix, that is, sew. For this operation, the plaque should be no more than 2.5 cm.

Stenting is performed using a balloon catheter. This is a minimally invasive procedure. When the catheter is located at the site of stenosis, it inflates and thereby expands the lumen.

Rehabilitation

The period after heart surgery is no less important than the operation itself. At this time, the patient's condition is monitored by doctors, and in some cases, cardio training, therapeutic diets, etc. are prescribed.

Other recovery measures are also needed, such as wearing a bandage. The bandage at the same time fixes the seam after the operation, and of course the entire chest, which is very important. Such a bandage should be worn only if the operation is performed on the open heart. The cost of these items may vary.

The bandage that is worn after heart surgery looks like a T-shirt with tightness clamps. You can purchase male and female versions of this bandage. The bandage is important to prevent lung congestion by coughing regularly.

Such prevention of stagnation is quite dangerous because the seams can disperse, the bandage in this case will protect the seams and contribute to strong scarring.

Also, the bandage will help prevent swelling and bruising, promotes the correct location of organs after heart surgery. And the bandage helps to relieve the load from the organs.

After heart surgery, the patient needs rehabilitation. How long it will last depends on the severity of the lesion and the severity of the operation. For example, after CABG, immediately after heart surgery, you need to start rehabilitation, this is a simple exercise therapy and massage.

After all types of heart surgery, medical rehabilitation, that is, supportive therapy, is needed. In almost all situations, the use of antiplatelet agents is mandatory.

If there is high blood pressure, then ACE inhibitors and beta-blockers are prescribed, as well as drugs to lower blood cholesterol (statins). Sometimes the patient is prescribed physical procedures.

Disability

It should be noted that disability is given to people with diseases of the cardiovascular system even before surgery. There must be evidence for this. From medical practice, it can be noted that they necessarily give disability after coronary artery bypass grafting. Moreover, there may be a disability of both 1 and 3 groups. It all depends on the severity of the pathology.

People who have circulatory disorders, grade 3 coronary insufficiency, or have had a myocardial infarction are also entitled to disability.

Regardless of whether the operation was performed or not yet. Patients with grade 3 heart defects and combined defects can apply for disability if there are persistent circulatory disorders.

Clinics

Name of clinic Address and telephone Type of service Cost

NII SP im. N. V. Sklifosovsky	Moscow, Bolshaya Sukharevskaya sq., 3	CABG without IR CABG with valve replacement Angioplasty and coronary artery stenting RFA Aortic stenting Valve replacement Valve repair	64300 rub. 76625 rub. 27155 rub. 76625 rub. 57726 rub. 64300 rub. 76625 rub.
KB MGMU them. Sechenov	Moscow, st. B. Pirogovskaya, 6	CABG with valve replacement Angioplasty and stenting of coronary arteries RFA Aortic stenting Prosthetic valves Valve repair Aneurysm resection	132000 rub. 185500 rub. 160000-200000 rub. 14300 rub. 132200 rub. 132200 rub. 132000-198000 rub.
FSCC FMBA	Moscow, Orekhovy Boulevard, 28	CABG Angioplasty and stenting of the coronary arteries RFA Aortic stenting Prosthetic valves Valve repair	110000-140000 rub. 50000 rub. 137000 rub. 50000 rub. 140000 rub. 110000-130000 rub.
NII SP im. I.I. Janelidze	St. Petersburg, st. Budapestskaya, 3	CABG Angioplasty and stenting of the coronary arteries Aortic stenting Prosthetic valves Valve repair Multivalvular prosthetics Probing of the heart cavities	60000 rub. 134400 rub. 25000 rub. 60000 rub. 50000 rub. 75000 rub. 17000 rub.
SPGMU them. I.P. Pavlova	St. Petersburg, st. L. Tolstoy, 6/8	CABG Angioplasty and coronary artery stenting Prosthetic valve replacement Multivalve prosthetic RFA	187000-220000 rub. 33000 rub. 198000-220000 rub. 330000 rub. 33000 rub.
MC "Shiba"	Derech Sheba 2, Tel Hashomer, Ramat Gan	CABG Prosthetic valves	30000 USD 29600 USD
MedMira	Huttropstr. 60, 45138 Essen, Germany 49 1521 761 00 12	Angioplasty CABG Prosthetic valves Cardiac examination Coronary angiography with stenting	EUR 8000 EUR 29000 EUR 31600 EUR 800-2500 EUR 3500
Greekomed	Central Russian office: Moscow, 109240, st. Upper Radishchevskaya, house 9 A	AKSH valve replacement	20910 euros 18000 euros

Do you still think that getting rid of HEART DISEASES is impossible!?

Do you often experience discomfort in the area of the heart (pain, tingling, squeezing)? You may suddenly feel weak and tired… You constantly feel high blood pressure… There is nothing to say about shortness of breath after the slightest physical exertion… And you have been taking a bunch of medications for a long time, dieting and watching your weight…

Bondarenko Tatiana

DlyaSerdca.ru project expert

May God grant everyone to live a long life so that the surgeon's scalpel never touches his heart. However, not always cardiac surgery can be replaced by therapy.

When is surgery necessary?

When conservative therapy does not give the desired result.
When, despite all the ongoing treatment, the patient's condition continues to deteriorate.
When there are severe congenital heart defects, severe arrhythmia, cardiomyopathy.

By urgency, cardiosurgical operations are emergency and planned.

Emergencies are carried out when a person's life is in serious danger. This happens when a myocardial infarction occurs, a blood clot suddenly breaks off, or aortic dissection begins. They do not tolerate delay in surgery when the heart is injured. The consequences of delay are severe.
Planned are carried out in accordance with the developed plan for the correction of the patient's health. The date of the operation may be postponed depending on the circumstances. For example: with a cold, to avoid additional stress on the heart, or when the pressure suddenly dropped.

Surgical intervention differs in the technique of execution. There are such types of heart operations:

with the opening of the chest;
without opening the chest.

open heart surgery

Chest opening operations

Such surgical intervention is used in especially severe cases, when full accessibility of the heart is required during the operation.

Opening of the chest is performed with such pathologies:

tetralogy of Fallot (the so-called congenital heart disease with four serious violations of the anatomical structure);
serious anomalies of intracardiac partitions, valves, aorta and coronary arteries;
heart tumors.

The patient arrives at the hospital one day before the operation. Passes inspection, gives written consent. Be sure to wash with antibacterial soap and shave your hair. Where do you shave your body hair? The hair will be shaved at the site of the proposed incision. If you are going to have a coronary bypass surgery, you will have to shave your legs and groin. In the case of a heart valve replacement, it is necessary to shave the hair in the lower abdomen and in the groin area.

The surgery is performed under general anesthesia. To gain access to the heart, the surgeon opens the chest of the person being operated on. The patient is connected to an artificial lung ventilation apparatus, the heart stops for a while and surgical manipulations are performed with the organ.

How long the operation takes depends on the severity of the pathology. On average, several hours.

Tetralogy of Fallot

Open heart surgery has two advantages.

The surgeon has full access to the patient's heart.
Such a surgical intervention is possible without state-of-the-art medical equipment.

However, there are also significant drawbacks.

Surgical manipulations with the heart last several hours, which leads to fatigue of the operating team, during the operation there is a higher probability of making an erroneous action.
Opening the chest is fraught with various injuries.
There is a noticeable scar after heart surgery.
Various complications are not excluded:

myocardial infarction,
thromboembolism,
bleeding,
infections;
coma after surgery.

A long recovery is required with significant limitations in the patient's activities.

In most cases, when surgery is performed with an opening of the chest, disability is given after heart surgery, as after a heart attack.

What operations and under what pathologies are performed on the open heart?

Pathologies of the coronary arteries

Coronary artery bypass grafting is done in case of serious atherosclerotic lesions of the coronary arteries, which led to a severe form of coronary heart disease. The essence of shunting is to create a bypass for blood flow to the heart using a shunt, for which an artery or vein taken from the patient is used. For example: mammary coronary artery bypass grafting (MCB) is performed using the internal mammary (mammary) artery.

Operation Ross

Heart valve defects

Today, valves made from the patient's biological material are used to replace damaged valves.

The Ross procedure involves using the patient's own valvular pulmonary artery to replace a diseased aortic valve. An implant is placed in place of the pulmonary valve. Eliminates complications associated with rejection of a valve made of foreign material. Made for both adults and children.
The Ozaki operation involves the use of the patient's own tissue. Only in this case, the replacement of the aortic valve is performed with a valve made from the patient's pericardium. Complications with valve rejection are not observed for the same reason.

Open heart surgery is one of the methods of treating cardiovascular diseases, in which special surgical procedures are performed. The general principle is that there is an intervention in the human body in order to carry out the necessary activities on the open heart. In other words, this is such an operation, during which an opening or dissection of the region of the human sternum is performed, affecting the tissues of the organ itself and its vessels.

Open heart surgery

Statistics show that the most common intervention of this type among adults is an operation in which artificial blood flow is created from the aorta to healthy areas of the coronary arteries - coronary artery bypass grafting.

This operation is performed for the treatment of severe coronary heart disease, which occurs due to the development of atherosclerosis, in which there is a narrowing of the vessels supplying blood to the myocardium, their elasticity decreases.

The general principle of the operation: the patient's own biomaterial (a fragment of an artery or vein) is taken and sutured in the area between the aorta and the coronary vessel in order to bypass the place affected by atherosclerosis, in which blood circulation is impaired. After the operation is performed, the blood supply to a certain area of the heart muscle is restored. This artery / vein supplies the heart with the necessary blood flow, while the artery in which the pathological process occurs is bypassed.

Coronary artery bypass grafting

Today, taking into account the progress in medicine, for surgical treatment on the heart, it is enough to make only small incisions in the corresponding area. Another intervention, more complex, will not be needed. Therefore, the concept of "open heart surgery" sometimes misleads people.

Reasons for open heart surgery

The need to replace or restore the patency of blood vessels for the correct flow of blood into the heart.
The need to repair defective areas in the heart (for example, valves).
The need to place special medical devices to maintain the working capacity of the heart.
The need for transplantation operations.

What you need to know about coronary artery bypass surgery?

Time spending

According to medical data, this type of operation takes no less than four and no more than six hours. In rare, especially severe cases, when the operation requires more work (creation of several shunts), an increase in this period may be observed.

The first night after heart surgery and all medical procedures, patients spend in the intensive care unit. After three to seven days have passed (the exact number of days is determined by the patient's well-being), the person is transferred to a regular ward.

Operation Hazards

Despite the qualifications of doctors, no one is immune from unplanned situations. What is the danger of surgery, and what risk can it carry:

infection of the chest due to an incision (this risk is especially high for people who are obese, diabetic, or undergo a second operation);
myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke;
heart rhythm disturbances;
thromboembolism;
increased body temperature for a long time;
cardiac discomfort of any nature;
pain of a different nature in the chest area;
pulmonary edema;
short-term amnesia and other transient memory problems;
loss of a significant amount of blood.

These negative consequences, as statistics show, occur much more often when using an artificial blood supply device.

The risk of unpleasant consequences is always present

Preparation period

In order for the planned operation and general treatment to be successful, it is important not to miss anything significant before they begin. To do this, the patient must tell the doctor:

About medications that are currently being used. These may include medications prescribed by another doctor, or those that the patient purchases himself, including dietary supplements, vitamins, etc. This is important information and should be announced before surgery.
About all chronic and past diseases, health deviations that are currently available (runny nose, herpes on the lips, indigestion, fever, sore throat, fluctuations in blood pressure, etc.).

The patient should be prepared for the fact that two weeks before the operation, the doctor will ask him to refrain from smoking, drinking excessive alcohol, taking vasoconstrictor drugs (for example, nasal drops, ibuprofen, etc.).

On the day of the operation, the patient will be asked to use a special antibacterial soap, which significantly reduces the risk of infection during the operation. In addition, a few hours before the intervention, you can not eat food and drink water.

Operation

When open heart surgery is performed, the following actions are sequentially performed:

The patient is placed on the operating table.
He is given general anesthesia.
When the anesthesia begins to take effect and the patient falls asleep, the doctor opens the chest. To do this, he makes an incision in the appropriate area (usually it is no more than 25 sentiments in length).
The doctor dissects the sternum, partially or completely. This allows access to the heart and aorta.
Once access is secured, the patient's heart is stopped and connected to a heart-lung machine. This allows the surgeon to calmly perform all manipulations. Today, technologies are used that allow in some cases to perform this operation without stopping the heartbeat, while the number of complications is lower. than traditional intervention.
The doctor creates a shunt around the damaged part of the artery.
The cut part of the chest is fixed with a special material, most often with a special wire, but in some cases plates are used. These plates are often used for the elderly or for people who have had frequent surgeries.
After the operation is completed, the incision is sutured.

Postoperative period

After the operation is completed and the patient wakes up, he will find two or three tubes in his chest. The role of these tubes is to drain excess fluid from the area around the heart (drainage) into a special vessel. In addition, an intravenous tube is installed for the flow of therapeutic and nutrient solutions into the body and a catheter into the bladder to remove urine. In addition to the tubes, devices are connected to the patient to monitor the work of the heart.

The patient should not worry, in case of questions or discomfort, he can always contact the medical workers who will be assigned to monitor him and promptly respond if necessary.

The duration of the recovery period depends not only on physiology, but also on the person himself.

Each patient should understand that rehabilitation after surgery is not a quick process. After six weeks of treatment, some improvements can be observed, and only after six months will all the benefits of the operation become visible.

But each patient is able to speed up this rehabilitation process, while avoiding new heart ailments, which reduces the risk of a second operation. To do this, it is recommended to take the following measures:

follow the diet and special diet prescribed by the attending physician;
limit salty, fatty, sweet foods);
devote time to physiotherapy exercises, walks in the fresh air;
stop drinking alcohol frequently;
monitor the level of cholesterol in the blood;
track blood pressure.

If these measures are followed, the postoperative period will pass quickly and without complications. But you should not rely on general recommendations, the advice of your attending physician, who has studied the medical history in detail and is able to draw up an action plan and diet during the recovery period, is much more valuable.

Let's try to lift the veil of the mystery of their work and find out what types of heart surgeries exist and are carried out today. Is it also possible to perform heart surgery without opening the chest?

When the heart is in the palm of your hand or open surgeries

Open heart surgery is so called because the cardiac surgeon "opens" the patient's chest, cuts through the sternum and all soft tissues, and makes an opening of the chest. Such interventions, as a rule, are performed with the connection of a heart-lung machine (hereinafter referred to as AIC), which is a temporary replacement for the heart and lungs of the operated person. This apparatus is a complex device of rather impressive dimensions, which continues to pump blood through the body when the patient's heart is artificially stopped.

Thanks to AIC, open-heart surgery can be extended for many hours if necessary. Open surgeries are used for valve replacement, coronary artery bypass grafting can also be performed in this way, many heart defects are eliminated by open interventions. It should be noted that AIC is not always used during their implementation.

Not always the body can tolerate the intervention of a foreign heart substitute: the use of AIC is fraught with complications such as renal failure, impaired cerebral blood flow, inflammatory processes, and impaired blood rheology. Therefore, some operations on the open heart are carried out in the conditions of his work, without the connection of the AIC.

Such interventions on a beating heart include coronary artery bypass grafting, during this operation on a beating heart, the area of \u200b\u200bthe heart that the surgeon needs is temporarily switched off from work, and the rest of the heart continues to work. Such manipulations require high qualifications and skills of the surgeon, and also have a much lower risk of complications, they are perfect for people over 75 years old, patients with a large arsenal of chronic diseases, patients with diabetes mellitus than operations on an organ that is turned off from the blood circulation.

But all the pros and cons, of course, are determined by the cardiac surgeon. Only the doctor decides to keep the heart working, or stop it for a while. Open surgeries are the most traumatic, having a higher percentage of complications; after surgery, a scar remains on the patient's chest. But sometimes only such an operation can save a person's life, improve his health, return him to a full, happy life.

Intact heart or closed surgeries

If the sternum, heart chambers and the heart muscle itself were not opened during surgery, then these are closed heart surgeries. During such operations, the surgical scalpel does not affect the heart, and the surgeon's work consists in the surgical treatment of large vessels, cardiac arteries and aorta, the chest is also not opened, only a small incision is made on the chest.

Thus, a pacemaker can be installed, heart valve correction, balloon angioplasty, shunting, vascular stenting can be performed. Closed operations are less traumatic, have a lower percentage of complications, unlike open ones. Closed vascular surgery can often be the first step before subsequent heart surgery.

Indications for their conduct is always determined by the doctor.

Achievements of modern cardiac surgery or minimally invasive operations

Cardiac surgery is confidently moving forward, and an indicator of this is an increasing percentage of low-traumatic, high-tech manipulations that allow you to get rid of the pathology of the heart and blood vessels with minimal intervention and impact on the human body. What are minimally invasive interventions? These are surgical operations performed by introducing instruments or special devices, through mini-accesses - 3-4 cm incisions, or without incisions at all: during endoscopic operations, incisions are replaced by punctures.

When performing minimally invasive manipulations, the path to the heart and blood vessels can lie through the femoral vessels, for example - these operations are called endovascular, they are performed under X-ray control. Elimination of congenital malformations, prosthetic heart valves, all operations on vessels (from removal of a blood clot to expansion of the lumen) - all these interventions can be performed using minimally invasive technologies. Emphasis is placed on them in modern cardiac surgery, since a low risk of complications, minimal impact on the body are those huge advantages that patients can appreciate literally on the operating table.

Anesthesia during endoscopic procedures is not required, it is enough just to anesthetize the puncture site. Recovery after heart surgery performed using a minimally invasive technique is ten times faster. Such methods are also indispensable in diagnostics - coronary angiography, a method for examining the vessels of the heart by introducing contrast and subsequent x-ray control. In parallel with the diagnosis according to the indications, the cardiac surgeon can also perform therapeutic manipulations on the vessels - the installation of a stent, balloon dilation in a narrowed vessel.

And diagnosis and treatment by puncture on the femoral artery? Isn't this a miracle? Such miracles for cardiac surgeons are becoming routine. The contribution of endovascular methods of treatment is also invaluable in cases where the threat to the life of the patient is especially acute and minutes count. These are situations of acute coronary syndrome, thromboembolism, aneurysm. In many cases, the availability of the necessary equipment and qualified personnel can save the lives of patients.

When is the operation indicated?

It is up to an experienced cardiac surgeon or a council of doctors to decide whether an operation is indicated, as well as to determine the type of surgical intervention on the heart and blood vessels. The doctor can make a conclusion after a thorough examination, familiarization with the history of the development of the disease, monitoring the patient. The doctor should know the ins and outs of the disease very well: how long the patient has been suffering from cardiac pathology, what medications he takes, what chronic diseases he has, when he felt worse ... After evaluating all the pros and cons, the doctor makes his verdict: whether to have surgery or not. If the situation develops according to the above scheme, then we are dealing with a planned cardiac surgery.

It is shown to the following people:

lack of effect from adequate drug therapy;
rapidly progressive deterioration of well-being against the background of ongoing treatment with pills and injections;
severe arrhythmias, angina pectoris, cardiomyopathy, congenital and acquired heart defects requiring correction.

But there are situations when there is no time for reflection, questioning and analysis of the medical history. We are talking about life-threatening conditions - a blood clot broke off, an aneurysm exfoliated, a heart attack occurred. When the time goes by for minutes, emergency cardiac surgery is performed. Stenting, coronary artery bypass grafting, thrombectomy of the coronary arteries, radiofrequency ablation can be performed urgently.

Consider the most common types of heart surgery

CABG - coronary artery bypass grafting "on hearing" in many, probably because it is performed for coronary heart disease, which is extremely common among the population. CABG can be performed both open and closed, and combined techniques with endoscopic inclusions are also performed. The essence of the operation is to create bypass routes of blood flow through the vessels of the heart, restoring normal blood supply to the myocardium, which leads to a better supply of oxygen to the heart muscle.
RFA - radiofrequency ablation. This type of surgical intervention is used to eliminate persistent arrhythmias when drug therapy is powerless in the fight against arrhythmias. This is a minimally invasive intervention, which is performed under local anesthesia, a special conductor is inserted through the femoral or subclavian vein, supplying an electrode to the focus of pathological impulses in the heart, the current flowing through the electrode to the pathological focus destroys it. And the absence of a focus of pathological impulses means the absence of arrhythmia. 12 hours after the manipulation, the patient is already allowed to get up.
Prosthetic or plastic heart valves. Prosthetics means complete valve replacement, the prosthesis can be mechanical or biological. And plastic implies the elimination of defects in the "native" valve or valve apparatus. There are certain indications for these interventions, which are clearly known to cardiac surgeons.
Installing a pacemaker. Cardiac arrhythmias, severe bradycardia may be indications for installation, which, thanks to modern technology, can also be performed endoscopically.

How are operations performed?

An operation is an intervention in the human body with a violation of its integrity. Each disease requires an individual approach, which naturally affects the way the operation is performed.

How heart surgery is done: preparation for surgery

Heart surgery (cardiac surgery) is one of the most difficult to perform, dangerous and responsible type of surgical intervention.

Planned operations are usually carried out in the morning. Therefore, the patient is not allowed to eat or drink in the evening (for 8-10 hours), and immediately before the operation, a cleansing enema is made. This is necessary in order for the anesthesia to work as it should.

The place where operations are performed must be sterile. In medical institutions, special rooms are used for these purposes - operating rooms, which are regularly sterilized by quartz treatment and special antiseptics. In addition, all medical personnel who take part in the operation wash themselves before the procedure (you even have to rinse your mouth with an antiseptic solution), and also change into special sterile clothes, put on sterile gloves on your hands.

The patient is also put on shoe covers, a cap on his head, and the operation field is treated with an antiseptic. If necessary, before the operation, the patient's hair is shaved if the surgical field is covered with it. All these manipulations are necessary to avoid infection of the surgical wound with bacteria or other dangerous active microorganisms.

Narcosis or anesthesia

Anesthesia is a general anesthesia of the body with its immersion in drug-induced sleep. During surgical interventions on the heart, general anesthesia is used, and in some cases, during endovideosurgical operations, spinal anesthesia, in which a puncture is made in the spinal cord at the level of the lower back. Substances that cause pain relief can be administered in various ways - intravenously, through the respiratory tract (inhalation anesthesia), intramuscularly or in combination.

Course of open heart surgery

After the person goes into medical sleep and ceases to feel pain, the operation itself begins. The surgeon uses a scalpel to open the skin and soft tissues on the chest. Cardiac surgery may also require an “opening” of the chest. To do this, with the help of special surgical instruments, the ribs are sawn. Thus, doctors “get” to the operated organ and put special dilators on the wound, which provide better access to the heart. Junior medical staff, using suction, removes blood from the surgical field, and also cauterizes cut capillaries and blood vessels so that they do not bleed.

If necessary, the patient is connected to an artificial heart machine, which will temporarily pump blood through the body, while the operated organ is artificially suspended. Depending on what kind of heart surgery is done (what kind of damage is eliminated), appropriate manipulations are carried out: this can be the replacement of blocked coronary arteries, the replacement of heart valves in case of defects, vein bypass surgery or the replacement of an entire organ.

Extreme care is required from the surgeon and all staff, as the life of the patient depends on it. It should also be added that during the operation, blood pressure and some other indicators are constantly monitored, which indicate the patient's condition.

Endovideosurgery: stenosis and angioplasty

Today, more and more often, heart surgery is performed not by an open method - with a chest incision, but with access through the femoral artery on the leg, under the control of an X-ray machine and a microscopic video camera. After preparing for operation, which is similar for all types of surgical interventions, and putting the patient into a medical sleep, access to the femoral artery is opened through an incision in the leg. A catheter and a probe with a video camera at the end are inserted into it, thanks to which access to the heart is provided.

In this way, angioplasty with stenosis of blood vessels is carried out in cardiac surgery, which is necessary for blockage of the coronary vessels that feed the heart itself with blood. Special stands are installed in the narrowed vessels - cylindrical implants that do not allow the arteries to clog anymore, which prevents the possibility of developing coronary disease.

After the main part of the operation is over and the heart is on its own again functions, stitching of damaged nerves, vessels and tissues is performed. The wound is again treated with an antiseptic, the surgical field is closed, soft tissues and skin are sutured with special threads. A medical bandage is applied to the external wound. After the end of all these procedures, the patient is taken out of anesthesia.

Other types of transactions

In addition to the abdominal operations described above, there are also operations performed in a less traumatic way:

Laparoscopy - is performed using a laparoscope, which is inserted through 1-2 cm incisions in the skin. Most often used in gynecology, gastrectomy and other operations in the abdominal cavity. You can read more about this
Laser surgery - is carried out using a special laser beam. Usually, operations are performed in this way on the eyes, when removing skin formations, etc. You can read more about the method