![]() As a part of follow-up treatment, your doctor will order an echocardiogram to see how your heart functions. It may take as long as eight weeks to recover from a pericardiectomy fully. Call the doctor if you develop a fever, increased drainage from the wound, increased chest pain, or other severe symptoms.You will likely need low doses of diuretics after surgery.Do not lift anything heavy during the recovery period.Your doctor will give you strict discharge instructions such as: Your heart symptoms should improve quickly after surgery. Most patients feel sore after surgery, but not severe pain. You may need a drainage tube to remove excess fluid from your chest. While in the hospital, your care team will monitor your vital signs such as heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and oxygen level. You will likely stay in the hospital for as long as seven days after the surgery. Recovering from a pericardiectomyĪ pericardiectomy is major cardiac surgery. Your surgeon may also perform other heart repairs during the procedure. Your surgeon will use cameras and small tools to do the surgery through these holes. This is called video-assisted thoracoscopy or VATS. Using special surgical instruments, the surgeon will remove part of or the entire pericardium.ĭuring minimally invasive surgery, your surgeon will make several small incisions on the side of the chest to access the heart and remove the pericardium. Generally, you will need the help of a heart-lung machine to keep your blood pumping through the body during surgery.Ī pericardiectomy can be performed with open surgery or through minimally invasive techniques.ĭuring open surgery, your surgeon will make a large chest incision to access the heart. Tests your doctor may recommend before surgery include:Ī pericardiectomy is performed in an operating room under general anesthesia and will take a few hours. Stop taking medications outlined by your doctor before surgery.Do not eat or drink anything after midnight before the day of the surgery.Your surgeon will give you instructions on what to do in preparation for a pericardiectomy. If this method is not effective, a pericardiectomy may be an option. A less invasive method to drain the fluid is used the first-time fluid builds up. In some cases, the cause of constrictive pericarditis is not known.Ī pericardiectomy may also be recommended to drain the extra fluid that has built up in the pericardium due to a pericardial effusion. Heart attack that causes inflammation of the pericardial sac.Heart infection or in the pericardial sac.Cancer in the heart or cancer that has spread from other areas of the body, such as mesothelioma.There are a variety of conditions that cause constrictive pericarditis, including: The heart’s movement is affected by the scarring and leads to fatigue and swelling. In a patient with chronic constrictive pericarditis, their pericardium is thick, stiff, and calcified, due to repeated scarring. Patients with one instance of pericarditis are not candidates. Pericardiectomy is often recommended in patients with severe symptoms associated with chronic constrictive pericarditis that cannot be relieved with medical therapies. Candidates for pericardiectomy (surgical removal of the pericardium) ![]() ![]() While a pericardiectomy can help relieve your symptoms, it does not fix the problem that causes the inflammation. The goal of the procedure is to help the heart move more freely by removing damaged areas or the entire pericardium, the protective membrane around the heart.Ī pericardiectomy is a major cardiac procedure performed via open-heart surgery or minimally invasive, video-assisted thoracoscopy. A pericardiectomy is the surgical removal of the pericardium.
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