Anyone heard about "off-pump" procedure...OHS without heart-lung machine?

[HopefulHeart]

I will be needing surgery at some point for my ascending aortic aneurysm. It's currently at 4.4cm but as I am a shorter person and also have a BAV (which is fine at the moment), I may need the surgery sooner rather than later. To be honest, I think I am more afraid of the heart-lung machine than the surgery itself. I've read that there are many complications caused post-surgery by the heart-lung machine due to infection getting into the blood, clots or debris being dislodged causing strokes, etc. And I can feel my blood pressure rising as I type this because the fear of all this still gets to me in spite of how brave I try to act like I am. Recently I read about heart surgeons using something called the "off-pump" procedure where you are not hooked up to a heart-lung machine. The article I read indicated it was being used for coronary bypass operations, but I was wondering if anyone has heard of this being done for valve or aneurysm repairs?

 

[Zoltania]

Hi HopefulHeart,

I haven't heard about off-pump surgery for valve or aneurysm repairs, which doesn't mean it isn't being looked into.

But I would say that surgery is a scary prospect and it's easy to seize on one aspect of it, like the pump, and obsess about those risks. Many, many people have had on-pump surgery and come through just fine. According to my operative note, I was on the heart-lung machine for nearly three hours, and I didn't have any bad effects that I've noticed, not even any "pump head."

Think about all the people who post wonderful and informative stuff here. Almost all of them had on-pump surgery, and here they are living their lives and helping the rest of us. And the pump helps the surgeons do their best work. So there's a positive side to it.

 

[carolinemc]

It depends on the type of surgery that it to be recommended by the surgeon. If you are looking a double bypass, yes, there will be the heart and lung machine. There are some procedure that do not use the heart and lung machine, but that you need to ask the surgeon about. It is just a small incission, and the repairs done and a few valve replacements done, but not on the aortic valve,. If the aortic valve is to be replaced, it has to be on the heart and lung machine, because they place the heart out of the chest to get to the aortic valve to replace it. Be sure to talk to the surgeon and find out what might be done. Do not be afraid to ask questions, be proactive and hugs for today.

 

[OldManEmu]

I have had surgery both ways the first time a straight AVR the conventional way on pump.
The second time an AVR redo and aneurysm with deep hypothermic circulatory arrest, off pump for the aneurysm repair.
I can't say I noticed any difference between the two.
Below I have attached a link to a study on the procedure of Deep Hypothermic Circulatory Arrest.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3741856/