What Exactly Happens During Heart Valve Replacement Surgery
Anybody facing a major medical procedure has questions. It’s a good idea to get them answered before the procedure so that you will be informed and not quite as scared about whatis going to occur. If you and your family & friends are comfortable, it makes the whole process a little easier. If you are going to have heart valve replacement, you need to ask your doctor for all of the details about what is going to occur before, during, and after the op so you can prepare yourself and know what can be expected.
Before your heart valve replacement, you’ll get hooked up to an IV, and you’ll have to get rid of any jewellery, glasses, dentures, contacts, and hearing aids. Fundamentally, anything that you are wearing that can be removed. The anesthesiologist and the doctor will talk to you about what’s going to occur, and you’ll be given a sedative.
See also : mitral valve prolapse
During the surgery, you’ll be anesthetized. You’ll be hooked up to a heart lung machine which will take over for these organs so that the doctor can perform the heart valve replacement using either a mechanical or tissue valve. In order to do this they’re going to have to cut open your sternum to access your heart. Once the old valve is removed and the new one sewn in, they can unfasten you from within lung machine and start your own heart up again. Your breastbone will be wired back together and your incision will be sewn up.
When you wake up from your heart valve replacement surgery, you’ll be hooked up to all kinds of tubes and wires, including one down your throat to help breath, a catheter, an IV for medicine, and tubes near your heart to reduce the fluids from this area that are left over from the surgery. Once you are awake and in a position to breathe on your own the tube down your throat will be removed, and the others will be removed as you get better. You should expect to spend a pair days in the ICU, and then more time in a cardiac surgical floor until you are recovered enough to return home. However, even when you return home youmay still not be back to your old self. This will take approximately 6 to 8 weeks of gentle healing. You will continue to be on medicine as well that you need to take, and you’ll need to go to the doctor from time to time for monitoring of your condition.
