07/19/2024
It's not always necessary to have surgery for cardiac issues. Medication, lifestyle modifications, or nonsurgical procedures can sometimes be used to treat them. By using energy, for instance, catheter ablation can stop abnormal electrical signals from passing through your heart by creating tiny scars in the tissue surrounding it. Through a minimally invasive procedure called coronary angioplasty, a blocked or narrowed coronary artery is kept open by the insertion of a stent.
Surgery is, however, required to treat conditions like heart failure, dilated or diseased major blood vessels (like the aorta), defective heart valves, plaque accumulation that partially or completely blocks blood flow in a coronary artery, and irregular heart rhythms.
Surgery involving the heart or the blood vessels that supply the heart is referred to as heart surgery. Due to the complexity of heart surgery, cardiac surgeons must possess particular expertise and abilities. This significant occurrence has the potential to revitalize you and enhance heart health and circulation.
Surgery to repair your heart can also address congenital heart disease, a condition you were born with. Later-life problems can also be resolved by it. Your specific underlying issue or set of issues will determine the kind of heart surgery you need.
Cardiothoracic surgeons are highly skilled medical professionals who typically perform heart surgeries. Throughout your hospital stay, a group of medical professionals will look after you, including nurses, anesthesiologists, surgeons, and imaging specialists.
Your surgeon may choose to do open heart surgery, off-pump surgery, or minimally invasive heart surgery, depending on a number of variables, including your general health and cardiac condition. For example, any of these techniques can be used to carry out coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG). Depending on the severity of your heart condition and any variables that could increase your risk of complications, your cardiac care team will collaborate with you to determine which option is best.
What is Cardiac Surgery?
The term "cardiac surgery" describes the surgical treatments carried out by skilled cardiac surgeons on the heart or the major blood vessels, which are the main arteries and veins that connect to the heart. These procedures are often needed to treat congenital heart defects, treat endocarditis, rheumatic heart disease, and atherosclerosis, as well as complications of ischemic heart disease (such as coronary artery bypass grafting).
When other treatments have failed or are not effective, heart surgery may be necessary to treat specific cardiac conditions. Heart surgery might be a medical emergency in specific circumstances. For instance, immediate surgery might be required for a severe heart attack. In certain situations, heart surgery can be scheduled in advance. Major operations such as heart bypass surgery are performed to treat blocked arteries in the heart. Minor cardiac procedures, like implanting a pacemaker, are the subject of other surgeries.
Which Conditions are Treated With Cardiac Surgery?
|
S.No. |
Conditions | What does heart surgery do? |
| 1 | Coronary artery disease (CAD) - when the arteries supplying blood to your heart muscle become narrowed or blocked by a sticky substance called plaque. | Creates a new channel for blood to pass through the heart's artery that is blocked. This procedure is known as a heart bypass or coronary artery bypass graft (CABG). It is the most typical adult cardiac surgery. |
| 2 | Heart valve diseases - issues with the valves in your heart that regulate blood flow. | Repairs heart valves. Uses a biologic valve derived from human, pig, or cow heart tissue to replace the heart valves. |
| 3 | Arrhythmia - issues relating to your heart's rhythm or rate. They result from modifications to the electrical impulses that regulate your heartbeat. | Improves your heartbeat by implanting a pacemaker or an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) in your chest. It makes use of tiny incisions in the heart muscle to treat atrial fibrillation. The incisions leave scars that create a pathway for electrical signals coming from the heart (Maze surgery). |
| 4 | Heart failure - when the heart is not strong enough to pump enough blood that is rich in oxygen to meet your body's needs. | Following devices are inserted in the chest: -An implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) to help prevent sudden cardiac arrest. -A biventricular pacemaker to more effectively synchronize the heart's pumping action. -A ventricular assist device that facilitates the heart's blood pumping. -An entirely synthetic heart to circulate blood for the heart. -Replaces a severely sick heart for a healthy one (heart transplantation). |
| 5 | Heart aneurysm - a balloon-shaped bulge in an artery's wall. If the aneurysm ruptures or tears, it could be fatal. | It makes use of fabric tube or patch to replace or fix the heart artery's weak spot. |
| 6 | Angina - chest pain arising due to coronary artery disease. | Uses a laser to make small channels through part of the heart muscle (transmyocardial laser revascularization). |
| 7 | Damaged and abnormal heart structures, such as congenital heart defects (heart structure problems persisting from birth) | Repairs heart damage or issues relating to the development of the heart and blood vessels. Repairs vary depending on the kind of damage or defect. |
Types of Cardiac Surgery
The strategy a surgeon employs during heart surgery is contingent upon your particular heart condition, overall health, and additional variables. Heart surgery techniques include:
- Open-heart surgery: A surgeon performing open-heart surgery, also known as traditional heart surgery, makes an incision in the patient's chest to access the heart. The heart is stopped with medication because it is difficult to operate on a beating heart. Throughout the procedure, the body is kept pumping oxygen-rich blood by a heart-lung bypass machine.
- Off-pump heart surgery: Open heart surgery performed on a beating heart without the use of a heart-lung bypass machine is known as off-pump heart surgery. Using a tool, the surgeon stabilizes the heart. Coronary artery bypass grafts (CABG) may be performed by surgeons using off-pump heart surgery, but only under specific circumstances.
- Minimally invasive heart surgery: Little incisions are made in between the ribs during minimally invasive cardiac surgery. Even two to three inches could be cut. Via the incisions, the surgeon places instruments inside the chest. Heart-lung bypass surgery may or may not use one of these machines.
- Robotic-assisted surgery: One kind of minimally invasive surgery is robotic-assisted surgery. The robot's arms are equipped with tools that the surgeon operates via a computer. This enables the surgeon to perform complex operations with extreme precision.
When Do You Require Cardiac Surgery?
When less invasive procedures, medications, lifestyle modifications, or other treatments prove ineffective in treating severe heart conditions, cardiac surgery is usually necessary. This covers conditions like severe coronary artery blockages that result in angina or heart attacks, severe heart valve diseases such as stenosis or regurgitation, advanced heart failure, symptomatic congenital heart defects, life-threatening arrhythmias that are unresponsive to medication, aortic aneurysms or dissections, and end-stage heart disease that requires a heart transplant. The degree of symptoms, the findings of diagnostic tests, and the inability of alternative therapies to adequately relieve or control the condition all play a role in determining whether surgery is necessary.
FAQs
Q1: Is heart surgery risky?
A: Tissue damage to the liver, kidneys, heart, and lungs, among other organs. swelling, fever, infection, or other indications of inflammation at the site of the incision. Memory loss and other problems, like difficulty focusing or thinking clearly, usually go away a year after surgery.
Q2: Is heart surgery necessary?
A: Not all heart-related issues call for surgery. Medications, nonsurgical procedures, or changes in lifestyle can sometimes be used to treat them. For instance, catheter ablation stops abnormal electrical signals from passing through your heart by using energy to create tiny scars in the tissue surrounding your heart.