Cardiac Tamponade

[Ricardo]

Hi,
I just had a bentall procedure done to get a mechanical valve replacement.

After the surgery, I had a post op complication of Cardiac Tamponade where my heart sac gets filled up with fluid. Is there any chance the fluid will get drained away on it's own without needing to go through another surgery?

Is this cardiac tamponade a common complication in open heart surgery? Could it be due to surgeon's negligence in sewing up the heart after the valve replacement that caused this ?

Thanks,
Rick

 

[Lynlw]

Hi,
I just had a bentall procedure done to get a mechanical valve replacement.

After the surgery, I had a post op complication of Cardiac Tamponade where my heart sac gets filled up with fluid. Is there any chance the fluid will get drained away on it's own without needing to go through another surgery?

Is this cardiac tamponade a common complication in open heart surgery? Could it be due to surgeon's negligence in sewing up the heart after the valve replacement that caused this ?

Thanks,
Rick

Pericardial effusions where the heart sac gets fluid (from small to large ammounts) is relatively common,
Tamponade, from what I know is so much fluid it is compressing the heart and it can be live threatening, and usually needed to drained pretty quickly.

BUt having it drained doesn't HAVE to mean surgery, they can "tap' the fluid off with long needles, My son had pericardial effusions for a while when he was young and had the fluid tapped off often, but never needed surgery to reopen it and drain it, altho that IS done for tamponade.
Small amounts can go away, something like Motrin can help or they may prescribe steroids.

NO, it isn't due to negligence. its pretty much some peoples reaction to the trauma of surgery and imflanmation

 

[Ricardo]

Pericardial effusions where the heart sac gets fluid (from small to large ammounts) is relatively common,
Tamponade, from what I know is so much fluid it is compressing the heart and it can be live threatening, and usually needed to drained pretty quickly.

BUt having it drained doesn't HAVE to mean surgery, they can "tap' the fluid off with long needles, My son had pericardial effusions for a while when he was young and had the fluid tapped off often, but never needed surgery to reopen it and drain it, altho that IS done for tamponade.
Small amounts can go away, something like Motrin can help or they may prescribe steroids.

NO, it isn't due to negligence. its pretty much some peoples reaction to the trauma of surgery and imflanmation

Thanks for your reply. I had the long needle thing done but because I have multiple pockets of accumulated waste blood, it drained only one major pocket,I still have another small pocket behind my heart which cannot be reached by the needle. It kind of sucks I have to go through another op in a short span of 1 week to drain it. The exciting part is the general anesthesia part, unlike in movies where they gas you to sleep, for mine I have to take 9 needle injections before sleeping.


Seems from your post your child had the drainage done multiple times in the past, hope I won't have the problem recurring again after my next op...

 

[Lynlw]

Thanks for your reply. I had the long needle thing done but because I have multiple pockets of accumulated waste blood, it drained only one major pocket,I still have another small pocket behind my heart which cannot be reached by the needle. It kind of sucks I have to go through another op in a short span of 1 week to drain it. The exciting part is the general anesthesia part, unlike in movies where they gas you to sleep, for mine I have to take 9 needle injections before sleeping.


Seems from your post your child had the drainage done multiple times in the past, hope I won't have the problem recurring again after my next op...

I don't know if its possible, but they were able to remove the fluid in the pocket behind his heart in the cath lab, with a needle (well a cath) and not reopen him, altho from what I remember (it was 20 years ago) it was kind of tricky for the the doctor, but he was the head of the cath lab. Yes he had it for quite a while that time, but they've learned alot in the time since and are much better at getting it under control. he's had it after most of his heart surgeries, but since we know the symptons for him well, we catch it early enough it doesn't need drained and meds take care of it.
Have they started any meds like seroids to hopefully help keep it from coming back?
Interesting about the general, they use gas and IVs here.