Cardiovascular surgery

The heart is a muscle that pumps blood around your body.

The right side of the heart gets blood from the body and pumps it to the lungs, where the blood picks up oxygen that you have breathed in.

The left side of the heart takes this oxygen-rich blood from the lungs and pumps it to all parts of the body. This is a continuous process.

For more information, visit https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/cardiovascular-disease.

Coronary artery disease

The heart muscle (myocardium) gets its blood supply from the coronary arteries. Sometimes these arteries can become narrowed where fat gradually layers inside them. This is known as coronary artery disease or atherosclerosis.

As the coronary artery becomes narrowed, the blood supply to the myocardium is decreased. When demand for oxygen-rich blood is more than your body can supply, the muscle will become painful.

If the coronary artery becomes completely blocked, usually by a blood clot where the artery is narrowed, a heart attack (myocardial infarction) occurs.

The narrowing of your artery will be identified by a coronary angiogram investigation, performed by a cardiologist.

A Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) operation can be done to relieve angina and reduce your risk of having future heart attacks.

During the CABG operation, extra blood vessels are sewn to your narrowed arteries to bypass the narrowed area and bring blood to your heart muscle. There are spare arteries inside the chest wall and the forearm, and spare veins in the legs which can safely be removed. All these can be used to construct excellent bypass grafts.

Bypass surgery for coronary artery disease is very effective. Most patients find that their angina goes away completely following surgery and some patients experience improved function of the heart muscle.

To find out more, visit https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronary-heart-disease

Heart valve disease

The heart pumps blood continuously around the body. Within the heart are four valves that makes sure that the blood flows the right way. Sometimes one or more valves can become damaged or diseased. This means that they may not open properly and obstruct the blood flow (valve stenosis) or they may not close properly allowing blood to leak back (regurgitation or incompetence).

These problems puts more strain on the heart. Side effects of this can be tiredness and/or breathlessness when you exercise, although sometimes there are no symptoms, but a heart murmur may be heard by the doctor. Without treatment the heart muscle can become permanently damaged.

The most common valves to be affected are the aortic and mitral valves. The affected valves are either replaced or repaired.

If you are having an operation on your heart valve, it's very important that your teeth and gums are healthy. This is because infected teeth and gums can cause the new heart valve to become infected. Please make sure  that you see a dentist regularly – we will have already asked your dentist for information about your dental treatment. Your operation may be delayed if you need dental treatment as this will need to be carried out before your operation.

Some patients need both valve and coronary artery bypass graft surgery at the same time.