Triple Bypass Surgery
The heart is a vital organ to life. For everyday of a person’s life, the heart beats thousands of times, pumping about 5 million gallons of blood through their entire body. When one of the heart’s outer arteries gets blocked, this will cause a heart attack. Blockages like this are usually caused by fatty deposits or plaque that builds up in the heart’s arteries over the course of many years. It is necessary to note that blocked heart arteries and the heart attacks caused by them is the leading killer in the United States of America.
When a person has blocked arteries resulting in a heart attack, a common procedure is to perform heart surgery and sew in a new piece of blood vessel to bridge over (bypass) the blockage. Usually, this allows the surgeon to fix not only one immediate problem, but also other arteries on the heart that are beginning to appear blocked as well. If the surgeon addresses three of the arteries, this procedure is referred to as a triple bypass. If four arteries are repaired then this is a quadruple bypass.
The blood vessel used to create the bypass is taken from the chest or leg, as the body has several redundant vessels that can be removed without causing any harm to the body. Bypassing the artery will involve a series of steps which are repeated for each bypass that is performed in a triple bypass heart surgery. Similar to other bypass surgeries of the heart, the triple bypass heart surgery will require the aid of the heart-lung machine. This machine is then responsible for maintaining the breathing and functioning of the heart when a triple bypass heart surgery is being performed on a patient. After the surgery is complete, the surgeon must make sure that the blood flow in the arteries are normal and adequate for the heart’s functioning.
Complications after a triple bypass heart surgery are more prone to appear in the elderly than in younger patients. The patient’s medical conditions are carefully considered before triple bypass heart surgery is performed on them. Also, women are at higher risk than men in a triple bypass surgery. Patients who are diabetic and have kidney diseases will also be more prone to complications after a triple bypass heart surgery. Post surgery side effects are to be considered and quickly addresses. These side effects may even include memory loss and lack of mental clarity. To avoid shortage of proper blood group during a surgery, the patient is often required to store their blood in a bank before doing the triple bypass procedure.
As the old saying goes, prevention is always better than cure. Therefore, it is preferable to take precautions to avoid having to undergo triple bypass surgery. People with a family history of diabetes and heart disease are more liable to require triple bypass surgery. A healthy, balanced diet and regular exercise is essential in preventing heart complications which may lead to the requirement for triple bypass surgery.
