Nine Questions to Help Protect Your Heart Before Surgery

	Tweet

It’s too bad that ticker trouble doesn’t guarantee good health elsewhere in the body. Most people with heart disease have other ailments, including some that require surgery. What’s needed to protect the heart during such operations? The December issue of the Harvard Heart Letter offers nine questions to help you and your doctor determine if you need cardiac testing or treatment before undergoing surgery.

New guidelines from the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association take some of the stress—and stress testing—out of surgery. They limit the use of pre-surgery stress testing, especially before low-risk procedures such as colonoscopy, cataract removal, and most outpatient surgeries.

For higher-risk operations, like surgery on the aorta or other blood vessels, prostate surgery, or bone or joint surgery, whether you need testing and preventive care depends on the state of your heart. People with an active heart condition such as unstable heart failure, a significant heart rhythm problem, or severe valve disease need pre-surgery cardiac evaluation, and possibly treatment, more than those with stable, well-controlled heart disease.

The Harvard Heart Letter’s questions include these:
• How urgent is the operation? In an emergency, there’s no time to second-guess cardiac risk. If the surgery can be delayed, cardiac considerations become more important.
• What’s your functional status? Can you climb stairs without needing to stop because of chest pain or breathlessness? The more you’re able to do, the less you need a presurgical cardiac evaluation.
• Do you have cardiac risk factors? Angina, diabetes, kidney disease, controlled heart failure, or a prior stroke increase the chances of heart trouble during surgery. If you don’t have any of these risk factors, you probably don’t need special precautions before surgery.

Also in this issue:
• Genetic testing before starting warfarin
• Isolated systolic hypertension
• Pacemaker infections
• Off-pump bypass surgery in women
• Heart deaths and flu

The Harvard Heart Letter is available from Harvard Health Publications, the publishing division of Harvard Medical School, for $28 per year.

Source: Harvard Health Publications

RELATED STORIES:
Mammography screening reduced risk for death from breast cancer by half   Breast cancer deaths decline more slowly for some   African-American Women Delayed in Breast Cancer Diagnosis, Treatment & Clinical Care   Canadian cardiology team clears the way for lifesaving breast cancer treatment   Well-educated women hardest hit by breast cancer   US, Mexico plan to lower breast cancer deaths   Adding radiation decreases breast cancer recurrence   Breast implants may be linked to rare cancer: FDA   Breast cancer drug extends lives: study   Burden of proof: Breast cancer changes fall short   Researchers Identify Gene Involved in Breast Cancer   Phase III study compared neoadjuvant therapy with lapatinib or trastuzumab for early breast cancer   BRCA1 and BRCA2: Cancer Risk and Genetic Testing   Study Finds Lapatinib Shows Promise as Therapy for Inflammatory Breast Cancer   Early Stage, HER2 Positive Breast Cancer Patients at Increased Risk of Recurrence   Minorities less likely to know about breast cancer options   Breast cancer survivors at higher risk for falls   Contrast agent puts new light on diagnosing breast cancer   Insurance and socioeconomic status do not explain racial disparities in breast cancer care   Estrogen therapy linked to benign breast disease   Screening mammograms catch second breast cancers early   Tracking and feedback registry may reduce racial disparities in breast cancer care

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]