Open-heart surgery is any procedure in which the surgeon makes a large incision to open up the rib cage in order to get to the heart. It is needed to perform a coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), which is necessary to correct coronary heart disease. It can also be done to repair or replace heart valves, damaged or abnormal areas of the heart, implant medical devices or do a complete transplant.
The procedure itself will usually take about 4-6 hours, and the patient is given general anesthesia. An approximately eight-inch long incision is made, the breastbone is cut through to expose the heart, and the surgeon will do whatever is needed; no two open-heart surgeries are exactly alike. As with any major procedure, there are some risks involved.
Survival statistics for heart surgery are incredibly difficult to ascertain, because as previously mentioned, every surgery is different. Each patient has a unique set of risk factors, including age, health history, prior surgeries, overall heart function, and a host of other information of which your doctor and surgeon will need to be aware. Then a calculation can be made determining how long and well you will be able to live after the operation, along with the likelihood of complication.
The most common risks associated with the surgery that patients experience include: wound infection, irregular heartbeat, memory loss, blood clot, heart attack or kidney failure. Some of these are more common than others, but your doctor can be prepared and therefore treat all of these side effects, hopefully without any further damage to your health. The infection caused by a heater-cooler device is much more serious.