Heart Disease

Heart Disease
Stent and Angioplasty:
A stent is a mess tube used to treat narrow or weak arteries (blood vessels that carry blood away from the heart to other parts of the body).
The stent is placed in the artery as part of an Angioplasty procedure. Angioplasty restores blood flow into narrow or blocked arteries. The stent helps to support the inner wall of the artery after the angioplasty.

Doctors also place stents in weak arteries to improve blood flow and prevent arteries from bursting.
Valve Replacement
If one or more of the valves in your heart is diseased or damaged, it can affect he way your blood flows through your heart by obstructing the flow of blood. This is called valve stenosis or narrowing. It also may allow blood to leak backwards. This is called valve regurgitation, on a leaky valve.
Valve replacement is when the diseased valve is replaced with a new one. The most common types of replacement valves are mechanical (artificial) valves or tissue (animal) valves
In the operation, a surgeon makes an incision down your breast bone, opens up the heart to reach the valve and performs the replacement.
Bypass Surgery
If you have coronary heart disease the doctor might suggest a bypass operation to improve the blood supply to your heart muscle.
Your arteries narrow when fatty deposits build up on the inner walls of your arteries. The aim of bypass surgery is to get around the narrowed sections of your coronary arteries.
The surgeon does this by grafting a blood vessel in the middle of the aorta and the coronary artery.
In most operations, the breastbone is cut. However in some, the breastbone doesn’t need to be – this is called minimally invasive surgery.
A heart-lung bypass machine circulates the blood around the body while the surgeon operates on your heart. If the machine isn’t used it is called beating heart surgery.
The benefits are that most people get excellent relief from angina and an improved quality of life.
Heart Transplant
A heart transplant is an operation to replace a damaged heart with a healthy human heart from a donor who has recently died
A transplant is needed when a heart can no longer work efficiently and a person’s life is at risk. It is usually recommended if a person has severe heart failure, is expected to die within a year without a transplant or has not responded to convential treatments for heart failure.
The donor heart must be transplanted within 4 hours of being removed from the donor. During the operation, a heart bypass machine keeps your blood circulating.
A cut is made in the abdomen and the damaged heart is removed. The donor heart is then connected to main arteries. It normally takes between 3 and 5 hours for the operation to take place.
Possible complications of the operation include: failure of the transplanted body to pump properly and the scenario in which the body rejects the donor heart.
Artificial Heart
An artificial heart is a mechanical device about the size of an orange that connects to your heart or is implanted in your chest to help or replace a failing heart. It can have valves, a mechanism to propel blood forward and more than one chamber. Mostly, it is used for the time up until you have a heart transplant. If no other options are available, an artificial heart may completely and permenantly replace your heart
There are two types of artificial heart: one that provides an extra ventricle to pump blood around the heart. This is called a Ventricular Assist Device, and is made of metal and plastic. It is lined with a material that stops blood from clotting. It can be in your body or outside it.
The second is a total artificial heart. It is a mechanical substitute for your entire heart. They are put into your body after you heart has been removed.
If you have severe heart failure and your heart can’t pump enough blood around your body to keep it working, you may need an artificial heart.
An artificial heart can last for a couple of weeks (if you need it just until a donor heart replaces it) up until several years (permanently).