The human heart is a powerful organ and it takes a lot to wear it down. Years of neglect, bad diet and a poor lifestyle can cause disorders to develop, which only get worse and become life threatening. Fortunately, there are very successful remedies available through heart surgery.
Simply put, heart problems do not develop over night, unless we are talking about love at first sight. But that is a completely different kind of complication.
Jokes aside, heart and vascular system disorders can often be relieved through a combination of medication, improved diet and regular exercise to keep the blood flowing properly throughout your body. Heart surgery is usually reserved to be a last resort.
People who neglect problems with their heart over time may find heart surgery to be their only option.
Open Heart Surgery
Open heart surgery is a procedure where the patient’s chest is opened for access to the heart directly. Depending on the type of surgery, the surgeon may have to the work on the heart directly.
Heart surgery is one of the most serious and difficult surgeries to perform. Cardiovascular surgeons are highly skilled, with years of education and experience.
Some of the more common types of surgeries include the following:
Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG)
This is one of the most common types of heart surgery and helps treat severe coronary heart disease. This surgery is performed when plaque has built up inside arteries and needs to be cleared through a procedure.
In a CABG procedure, a healthy artery or vein is connected or grafted to the blocked coronary artery. The vein can be taken from another part of the patient’s body, such as his or her leg and then stitched to the required artery. This is a highly successful heart surgery.
The grafted vein or artery goes around the blocked portion of the coronary artery and creates a bypass allowing blood to flow through the coronary artery.
Heart Valve Repair or Replacement
This is another open heart surgery. The surgeon cuts a damaged valve from the patient’s heart and inserts a prosthetic one, then stitching it in place.
Heart Transplant
A heart transplant is performed in patients with a heart that has become diseased or non-responsive due to disease. This is a very difficult procedure as the heart is completely removed and replaced with a healthy heart from a deceased donor.
This heart surgery can only be performed by the most experienced of surgeons who get the best outcome possible.
Transmyocardial Laser Revascularization (TMR)
This treatment is performed for patients suffering from an angina attack where no other treatment is working. An incision is made in the chest to expose the heart. A laser is then used to make tiny, millimeter wide cuts in the heart creating channels that improve blood flow.
The outer area of the channels are sewn back to close them. Researchers don’t understand completely how TMR works but there is evidence to suggest that the heart grows new, tiny blood vessels which relieve the angina pain.
Aneurysm Repair
An aneurysm is a bulging portion of a blood vessel that can develop anywhere in the vascular system. It is very dangerous if the vessel develops in the aorta. Researchers are not sure why this happens but they surmise it can happen if an artery wall weakens and the blood moving through the artery causes it to swell up.
An aneurysm can burst, causing massive internal bleeding inside the body. Surgery is performed to remove the dilated part of the vessel and replace it with a graft or synthetic material that won’t rupture.
Angioplasty
This is a procedure to widen arteries or veins that have narrowed or clogged thus reducing blood flow in the body. The technique involves attaching a deflated balloon to a catheter which is passed through a guide wire into the narrow vessel. It is then inflated to open it.
In some cases, a stent may be inserted into the blood vessel to ensure that it remains open.
Cardiomyoplasty
This procedure involves taking healthy muscle from another part of the body and wrapping it around the heart to offer it support. A special pacemaker is also placed in the muscle to make it contract like a heartbeat.
Minimally Invasive Heart Surgeries
This heart surgery is performed for a bypass or to insert a pacemaker, replace a heart valve, carefully graft a vein or artery from one part to another.
There are many other minimally invasive surgeries that cardiologists take advantage of.
During minimally invasive heart surgery, the chest is normally not opened.
Incisions are made near the ribcage so that the procedure can be performed through catheter tubes.