Pumphead??

[nate_c]

Hi, All. I stumbled upon this article this morning while looking for something completely unrelated. I really don't want to be an alarmist, especially since I'm still so new to this forum, but I was curious if any of you had heard of this before or if your doctors discussed it with you. It was completely new to me. Got to love that they call it "pumphead." Sounds like a bodybuilding workout video from the 80s!

Link to full article below. Here are a few quotes from the opener:

"Roughly 60 percent of them experience some degree of mental decline after the surgery, a phenomenon that surgeons call "pumphead."

"The exact causes of pumphead are still up for debate, but Slater's research suggests it is at least partly due to problems with oxygen reaching the brain during surgery"

Here's a link to the full article, if you want to read it: http://www.scientificamerican.com/b...an-open-heart-surgery-make-you-dim-2009-01-09

 

[barbwil]

Welcome, Nate. It's amazing that you have been so heavily into some serious sports with such a bad valve!

About pumphead, put that term in the search slot up on the top right hand side of the page and you will see some of the previous discussions on it.

 

[nate_c]

Welcome, Nate. It's amazing that you have been so heavily into some serious sports with such a bad valve!

About pumphead, put that term in the search slot up on the top right hand side of the page and you will see some of the previous discussions on it.

Thanks, Barb! I should have thought of that before posting... I'll take a look.

 

[Bina]

Pumphead becomes a good excuse for forgetfulness....LOL
About 3 weeks post op I started doing word puzzles, crosswords, Sudoku, etc. to keep my itty bitty brain working.

 

[buncle]

It is common but.a tempoary situation.I had trouble writing for several weeks after surgery.Spell check became my best friend!lol It seems for most to be another part of ohs recovery.

 

[Cris N]

Pretty common - mine disappeared within a few weeks.

 

[AgilityDog]

I had it big time with the MVR, but little evidence of it this round. Perhaps being in better condition for the AVR makes a difference? Of course, I won't reallly know until I start working again. And all typos are the result of using a laptop instead of my ergonomic keyboard!

 

[carolinemc]

I am familar with pumphead, since I still suffer from it now 9 years later. I still forget things, even at work. What is so bad, that in a few months I will have to learn a whole new job. I will have to take a tons notes to be able to remember all told. I will be fine. I can function normally. But I do forget things sometimes.

 

[COLLEEN S]

Fibromyalgics like me call this "fibrofog".

 

[john79t]

Hard to tell I think I was a pump head before surgery. LOL

 

[ejc61]

I would say an easy 3-4 weeks after surgery, you feel a bit cloudy. Not constantly mind you. Try the mind games immediately, like once you are sitting up in the hospital. I went back to work in about 17 days and I was a bit hazy at times.

 

[Dennis S]

I have often wondered if what passes for"pump head" is really caused by an understandable pre-occupation with the physical and emotional self after such a traumatic event. It would make sense to me if the mind pulled back from things not deemed essential until "it" becomes convinced that it can once again become a little more focused on outside matters. Just a theory.

 

[Philip B]

Pumphead

Pumphead

Pumphead issues have been visited and revisited here many times. Lack of oxygen to the brain is a potential cause as is the possibility that the heart-lung machine emits microscopic particals which bombard the brain. There are probably other potential causes as well.

Speaking personally, the stuff I heard about pumphead before surgery convinced me that I wanted to spend as little time on the heart-lung machine as possible. I even opted for a St. Jude mechanical valve with a factory attached conduit to save me a few minutes.

-Philip

 

[Philip B]

Pumphead

Pumphead

Pumphead issues have been visited and revisited here many times. Lack of oxygen to the brain is a potential cause as is the possibility that the heart-lung machine emits microscopic particals which bombard the brain. There are probably other potential causes as well.

Speaking personally, the stuff I heard about pumphead before surgery convinced me that I wanted to spend as little time on the heart-lung machine as possible. I even opted for a St. Jude mechanical valve with a factory attached conduit to save me a few minutes.

-Philip

 

[TickTick]

I already have it and haven't had surgery yet )-:

 

[geckley]

I'm rolloing on 2 years and I still have very limited short term memory.

 

[Jkm7]

The studies and experts can say whatever they wish..... There is such a thing as pumphead. I've been through two OHS, and I know for sure I've had pumphead. It is the only way to explain the obvious and immediate changes I have noticed. Each surgery was a source of pumphead for me and some of it has yet to disappear. I know what I know about myself and I know I personally absolutely suffered cognitive effects from each of my OHS. Doesn't keep me from functioning but I know my mind does not operate the same as before.

 

[LonMel]

I did not suffer from the affects of being on a pump for several hours. The first thing I did when I woke up nearly 20 hours later was ask the nurses what their names were and tested myself to see if I could remember their names - I did. The only side effect I had with being on a pump was "pins and needles" and numbness in my right arm due to the surgeon using my right subclavian artery for the bypass. Apparently, the procedure damaged nerves in my right arm. When I asked him why I had the numbness, he replied that using the right subclavian artery instead of the aorta was to prevent a stroke. I believe this was as good a reason as any.

For those who experienced the "pumphead" phenomena, which vessel was cannulized?

 

[nate_c]

I thought I'd follow up with my own experience, now that I've been through it. I had a pretty severe reaction to the anesthesia, which turned out to be my biggest post-op problem (much harder to deal with in the first week than the surgery itself), and so it's hard for me to know whether what I experienced was pumphead or just fuzzy brain from the anesthesia. In any case, I had a hard time remembering everyday words for about a week or two after the surgery. I'd get about half way through a sentence and realize a word I needed was gone from my memory. It didn't happen all the time, but it did happen far more than I'd ever experienced before. It was a little embarrassing--I'd be talking to the nurses or doctors and fumbling around for common nouns. Thankfully, this went away and I'm back to normal now.