Scar tissue, between the heart and the sternum

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Lily

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My surgeon put a material between my heart and my sternum during my valve replacement surgery and before closing me back up, in anticipation of an eventual reop, as I understood to hopefully avoid some of the post-op scarring and related reopening OHS complications that can occur from the heart attaching by scar to the sternum.

Anyone else get something like this?
 
Lily said:
My surgeon put a material between my heart and my sternum during my valve replacement surgery and before closing me back up, in anticipation of an eventual reop, as I understood to hopefully avoid some of the post-op scarring and related reopening OHS complications that can occur from the heart attaching by scar to the sternum.

Anyone else get something like this?
Click to expand...

No, but I wish I did!
 
Mu surgeon said he had no problem with my re-do. Said the scarring was not a major issue for him to handle. Of course, he was my surgeon for the first one so he admired his own work. :) (as did I..... ;)
 
I'm with you, Duffey. I wish my surgeon had used something like this because my right ventricle is now attached to my sternum thanks to scar tissue. You're lucky, Lily. :)

Take care,
Michelle
 
I have heard of it and I think quite a few members have gotten it. I think it is pretty new - I wish my son had gotten it.
 
Maryka said:
Lately I can really hear my heart-valve beating. I wish I had a little sound "insulation"!
Or doesn't it work that way?
Click to expand...
:D I wish it did but it doesn't seem to work that way.
Maybe we should have sprung for the R-38 insulation :eek: !
 
realkarl said:
Michelle: I was curious, how did you find this out, and does it cause any problems in your day to day life?

Karl
Click to expand...

I don't know about Michelle, but Justin's heart was fused to his sternum before both his 4th and 5th OHS. We found out about it by a cath he had to balloon open his stents a couple years before his 4th surgery and that was actually one of the things I discussed the most with surgeons when we were deciding who to let operate, how they would open it the safest way, did they have alot of experiences with hearts fused to sternums, ect. For day to day life he never noticed any difference, it just made it trickier to open his chest for the other surgeries, so we knew to go to the best surgeons/centers.
 
Hi there,

Lyn pretty much hit the nail on the head. I don't notice it day to day but was told any re-op will be risky.

I find this hard to believe but I don't think they realized it was there until they opened me up and started working. I had a cath prior to the operation and if they knew about it then they didn't tell me! My surgery was supposed to last three to four hours but ended up lasting over seven because of this problem.

Lyn, I can't imagine what Justin has gone through. My heart goes out to him and I admire not only his strength, but yours.

Cheers,
Michelle
 
I finally dug out my operative report to see what the material is called but I can't find what it's called.

Here is an excerpt of the op report though: "Clips were placed at the midline where the pericardium was approximated to give idea of the distance of the anterior surface of the heart and pericardial edge in connection with the sternum on future lateral x-rays views in anticipation that the patient may need reoperation in the future . . . and therefore safe resternotomy can be achieved."

But I don't see a specific mention of the material, unless it's there and I'm not understanding it. Very possible.

So I double checked with my husband and he also recalls the surgeon saying that he'd put a material in; my husband thinks the surgeon called it a "fabric mesh," or something like that.
 
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