At Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, you have access to experienced cardiovascular surgeons and advanced treatments tailored to your diagnosis. Our surgeons choose the right option for your needs so your heart can heal and you can return to your daily life.
Major procedures like heart bypass may come to mind when you think about heart surgery, but cardiovascular surgery now encompasses both traditional procedures and innovative new minimally invasive procedures. At Methodist, you have access to both.
Take a Heart Health Risk Assessment
Learn more about your current heart health and associated health risks. Our online assessment is quick, easy and confidential, and it can provide you with information that you can share with your doctor.
Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare offers a full spectrum of cardiovascular care, including all types of heart surgery. We’re committed to innovation and provide advanced techniques and technologies that can help improve care and enhance recovery for our patients.
We also perform innovative minimally invasive heart surgery, which offers patients benefits such as decreased bleeding, a lower risk of complications and a quicker recovery. Minimally invasive options are increasingly available for many heart conditions that traditionally required open-heart surgery.
Heart surgery can be either a scheduled procedure for an existing heart condition or an emergency intervention to treat a condition like a heart attack. Cardiovascular surgeons at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare perform these cardiac surgery procedures, as well as many others:
Some procedures may be performed as a traditional or open-heart surgery, which involves opening up the chest to access the heart, or as a minimally invasive procedure that accesses the heart or blood vessels through smaller incisions.
You may need cardiovascular surgery for many different reasons. It may be recommended if other treatment options, such as medication, aren’t effective in alleviating symptoms or correcting a heart issue.
Surgery may also provide a longer-lasting solution for abnormal heart rhythms, which occur when electrical signals in the heart are disrupted. Patients who have the maze procedure, for example, often don’t require medication to treat atrial fibrillation after surgery.
Surgery can be a first-line treatment for a wide range of serious conditions affecting the heart, lungs and blood vessels. Examples include treatment for heart defects, valvular damage or coronary artery blockages, along with blockages in the carotid arteries.
If your cardiologist recommends heart surgery, follow the guidelines you’re given before surgery. Every procedure works differently, and you’ll want to prepare appropriately.
In most cases, you’ll have presurgical testing, such as blood work and imaging scans, to ensure you’re healthy enough to have a surgical procedure.
You’ll also receive specific instructions on how to prepare in the days before your surgery, including how and when to shower, whether you need to fast, and whether you’ll need a ride home after surgery.
The specifics of your procedure, such as the type of anesthesia used and how long surgery will take, will vary depending on the surgery you’re having.
If you’re having an open-heart procedure, such as a traditional CABG, you’ll be placed under anesthesia and then put on a heart/lung machine that will take over the function of your heart and lungs and ensure blood and oxygen move throughout the body during surgery. Other procedures, including minimally invasive or catheter-based procedures, may require only local anesthesia and sedation.
After many heart procedures, you’ll be taken to the intensive care unit (ICU) so your care team can monitor your vital signs. You may stay in the ICU for only a day, or you may stay longer if complications arise or you require further close monitoring.
The length of your hospital stay will also vary. In most cases, even patients recovering from CABG are discharged from the hospital about a week after surgery.
Before you leave the hospital, you will receive guidelines for recovering at home, including how to watch for signs of infection, how and when to bathe, and when to resume specific activities. You will follow up with your cardiovascular surgeon after a week or two, and your surgeon may recommend you participate in cardiac rehabilitation to help you recover.
Our team includes dedicated heart surgeons.
Meet our heart surgeons.
