Coronary bypass surgery uses a healthy blood vessel taken from your leg, arm, chest or abdomen and connects it to the other arteries in your heart so that blood is bypassed around the diseased or blocked area. After a coronary bypass surgery, blood flow to your heart is improved.
In most cases, heart valve replacement is an open heart operation. This means that the surgeon opens your chest and heart to remove the damaged valve. The new artificial (prosthetic) valve is then sewn into place. In some cases, the valve can be replaced without opening the chest. Called minimally invasive surgery, the damaged valve is replaced through a small incision near the “breastbone” or under your right chest muscle.
A hole in the wall between the two upper collecting chambers (ASD) or between the two bottom pumping chambers (VSD) can cause problems. The severity of the symptoms depends on the size and the location of the defect and can range from no symptoms at all to severe heart failure. Heart failure in a baby results in poor feedings and poor weight gain. In older children, heart failure may cause decreased exercise tolerance and shortness of breath. Depending on their size and location, septal defects may close by themselves. The cardiologist will likely wait a while before recommending surgical treatment to see if that happens naturally. In cases involving larger holes and severe symptoms, however, treatment with surgery or catheter closure with a device will be needed. The surgical treatment for ASDs and VSDs is open-heart surgery. The heart is stopped and opened, and the hole is closed with a patch made of a synthetic material like Dacron or a patch of pericardium (the thick sac that surrounds the heart).