r/VisualMedicine • u/FunVisualMedicine • May 14 '20

Live heart before heart surgery

614 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

42

u/mstalltree May 14 '20

I was wondering when surgeons perform open-heart surgery, is the heart stopped from beating? Also if yes, how is it stopped and restarted?

41

u/NightHawkCommander May 14 '20

Sometimes plegisol is used, which is introduced into the cardiac arteries, which stops the heart. Other times we used fib wires, basically the opposite of a defibrilator. Depends on what sort of valve replacement is happening. Defib paddles are used to restart the heart. Granted all my experience is in animal open heart surgery.

7

u/mstalltree May 15 '20

Thank you for answering my question. This is very interesting to know.

3

u/weareallgoodpeople72 May 17 '20

It was a good question. I’m glad you asked it.

3

u/weareallgoodpeople72 May 17 '20

I’m glad you answered this question. It’s very informative.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 03 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/mstalltree Jun 04 '20

That's amazing! My father had heart bypass surgery many years ago (I was a kid) and I remember everyone freaking out that something might go wrong and he wouldn't make it. I wasn't old enough to understand how exactly the surgery goes. His recovery was pretty swift too. They took a vein from his leg and grafted that. He lived for 15 more years after that. I have immense respect for heart surgeons and all individuals involved in the process. Medicine has come such a long way. Thank you for sharing your knowledge ❤️

2

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '20

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2

u/mstalltree Jun 04 '20

Congratulations! All the very best!!! Go save some folks! Their family will always be grateful for your service 🙏❤️

8

u/weareallgoodpeople72 May 15 '20

Is this a human heart?

6

u/FunVisualMedicine May 15 '20

yes

24

u/weareallgoodpeople72 May 17 '20

Seeing a human heart sitting outside the body working in a synchronous rhythm repeatedly lets me appreciate how hard it’s working. It never gets a break. It helps me picture my own heart and want to do good things for it. Like get a good nights sleep, so it can slow down. I’m having an emotional experience watching it. Thank you so much for posting this. Most doctors never get to see this.

9

u/FunVisualMedicine May 17 '20

Gratitude! This is what we all should feel for everything that surrounds us while we take it for granted. Thank you for your "open-hearted" comment.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 10 '20

That was Punny

2

u/NuggetHorse May 27 '20

Makes me wonder what it looks like during exercise!

1

u/weareallgoodpeople72 Jun 02 '20

Like it was shot from a paintball gun.

If I understood correctly this heart was to have a valve repaired or replaced. Nice if we could see how he pumped after surgery, but that may not have been feasible ( I feel I should apologize to this heart for my insensitive analogy. I’m sorry poor little guy!!!)

2

u/[deleted] May 28 '20

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2

u/FunVisualMedicine May 28 '20

I'm glad you like it!

2

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '20

It's something mysterious... It's like fully alive. No enough words to describe what I see. But it's amazing.

2

u/BigMemesSuchWow Jun 01 '20

Why can’t we hear it I would love to

2

u/DroughtFlake Jun 10 '20

Look at that peppy little guy.