A quick guide to bypass heart surgery
Bypass Heart Surgery is where a surgeon takes blood vessels from another part of the body to bypass a blocked artery of the heart. The effect is that more blood and oxygen will again flow to your heart.
Only imagine that you are on a highway. A collision causes traffic to pile up ahead of you. Emergency teams are redirecting the congestion around vehicles. You can eventually get back on the highway and the road is open. Surgery for heart bypass similarly creates bypass channel, giving additional blood to starved heart muscles.
It can help reduce the risk of heart attack and relieve chest pain. You’ll feel great and be able to get back to your normal activities once you heal within few weeks.
- Heart surgery is only offered when your best bypass heart surgeon believes you have a serious chest problem because some of the arteries that supply the heart with blood are blocked.
- At least one of your coronary arteries has a condition that causes the left ventricle—the chamber that pumps most blood from your heart—to not function as well as it should.
- Your left main coronary artery has a blockage, which gives the left ventricle much of its blood.
- In presence of multiple heart artery blockages or poor heart function or in presence of diabetes :- it’s proven in multiple studies that bypass surgery is provide long term survival advantage.
The procedure of the bypass heart surgery
During surgery the whole time you’ll be sleeping. It takes between 3 to 4 hours for most operations. In your mouth, a small breathing tube goes in. It is attached to a ventilator, the tubes after operation comes out easily. Patient doesn’t feel any discomfort during the operation and recovery also is smooth.
Also See: Pediatric Heart Surgeon in Chandigarh
The recovery process of bypass surgery
Your body needs time to heal, but each day you will feel better. After surgery, it’ll take about 1-2 months for the body to heal completely.
During the first several months, you can see your physician like Dr. Ashwani Bansal few times to monitor your progress. If you feel any problem during the recovery process, we will provide a 24 hours helpline number to sort out all your queries.
What are the best alternatives to bypass surgery?
Angioplasty: A surgeon threads a deflated balloon up to your coronary arteries, linked to a special tube. They inflate the balloon once it’s there in order to expand the blocked areas. This occurs most of the time in connection with the insertion of something called a stent, a wire mesh tube that opens up the artery.
Angioplasty or stenting is suitable for small non calcified blockages. Multiple arterial stenting is not suitable for diabetic patients. In such situation stents life is limited and moreover bypass becomes difficult afterwards.
Minimal Invasive Cardiac Surgery (MICS) : Tiny incisions in your chest are made by a surgeon. And much like conventional bypass surgery, they connect veins from your leg or arteries from your chest to your heart. Your surgeon can, however, place the instruments through the tiny incisions in this case and use a video camera as a guide to doing the job.
All patients are not suitable for MICS surgery but those who are suitable have faster recovery. Scar is small 2-3 inch on side of chest.
Also See: Heart Specialist in Chandigarh