Heart Surgery
Every heart operation is tailored for the patient.
Multiple factors are taken into consideration when planning your procedure including which operation to offer you and how best to undertake the surgery.
These guides are designed to give a broad overview of the types of operations that are performed, but for specific details of your procedure, please discuss with your surgeon and anaesthetist how the operation is intended to be performed for you.
Heart Surgery
Anaesthetic
All surgery on the heart in Liverpool is undertaken with a general anaesthetic. This means that you will be drifted off to sleep with a sedative before a breathing tube is placed through your mouth and into you airway. This is connected to a ventilator to control your breathing while you are asleep. Several drips and lines are used to monitor you and give an medications you need whilst you are asleep. You will almost always have a catheter placed in your bladder to monitor the kidneys. This is also usually done when you are asleep.
Patient Journey
Every heart operation is a little different and even if you’re having the same operation as someone else, the experiences you have may not be the same. Have a look at our Patient Journey pages for a rough idea of what most people who have heart surgery can expect, but please be aware that the experience is individual.
Median Sternotomy
The majority of heart operations in the UK and worldwide are performed through the front of the chest. This is called a median sternotomy. The scar runs from below the notch at the base of your neck between the collarbones to just underneath the end of the breastbone. The breastbone is opened lengthways and, at the end of the operation, is closed using heavy steel wires that are left in permanently. The sutures used to close the overlying layers of soft tissue will dissolve and do not need to be removed.
Cardiopulmonary Bypass
The vast majority of cardiac surgery will require the work of the heart to be temporarily stopped whilst it is operated on. In order to do this a heart-lung machine called a cardiopulmonary bypass circuit is used (NB this bypass is not to be confused with the bypass of coronary artery bypass). These require blood to be drained as it returns to the heart from the body, sent for processing (pumping, temperature control, filtration, oxygenation and other controls) before being returned to the circulation. A drug given directly to the heart once the blood supply to the body has been established this way allows the heart to stop safely until the operation is over. This involves isolating the circulation of the bypass machine with that of the heart using a clamp across the aorta (aortic cross-clamp).
