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Heart Disease (Expert Forum)
Re: Does heart-lung machine cause memory loss?
This forum is for questions and support regarding heart issues such as: Angina, Angioplasty, Arrhythmia, Bypass Surgery, Cardiomyopathy, Coronary Artery Disease, Defibrillator, Heart Attack, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Mitral Valve Prolapse, Pacemaker, PAD, Stenosis, Stress Tests.
Re: Does heart-lung machine cause memory loss?
by Surgery-Patient, Jan 01, 1995 12:00AM
Posted By Surgery Patient on October 11, 1998 at 15:31:07:
In Reply to: Does heart-lung machine cause memory loss? posted by Susan M on October 10, 1998 at 23:12:40:
My time is coming soon for aortic valve replacement. I will probably opt for the mechanical valve and live with the coumadin. Hopefully I may not have to go through it again due to valve life expectancy. I have gotten so much good information from this web-site and information is "power". I think my cardiologist also appreciates my level of understanding when we consult. But what can you tell me about memory loss due to being on the heart/lung machine? I think I am more fearful of the anesthesia and heart/lung machine than the actual valve surgery. I have heard there can be personality change and memory loss that can last for months and maybe even be permanent. I mean if I am having this surgery to improve the quality of my life, I am very intimidated that I could come out of it a different person! Have not yet discussed this with my doctor. What is your spin on this and what are the statistics if you know them? I am very fit and healthy in general (am 50 with basically no risk factors and breeze right past the 25 year-olds) and only other surgery was a C-section 17 years ago (piece of cake!). Thanks for any information you can share!
Susan M
I had mitral valve surgery a little over a month ago and I am 45 with no other risk factors. I too was somewhat concerned before the surgery about the effects of the heart lung machine. These are issues you should discuss with the surgeon but my personal experience was that there was no detectible memory loss from a fairly long surgery (5 hours with about 2 /1/2 hours on the heart lung machine. My arteries were clear and there was no sign of cornary artery disease when the Heart Catherization was done. As a general rule I have found that the risk facts for an otherwise healthy individual are somewhat less that for an individual who has a number of complications to open heart surgery such as smoking, diabetes, heart attack, stroke or other vascular diseases. Again you should discuss these with the cardiologist and surgeon.
The other issue you may wish to discuss with your doctors relative to the heart lung machine is whether or not you should donate your own bood for surgery. (Autologuous I think its called). The heart lung machine tends to damage to a certain extent, red blood cells and some people are anemic when they get off bypass. Some physicians encourage iron supplementation to reduce this problem.
General anathesia risk for healthy patients is not trivial but runs around 1-2% depending on the individual. You may want to talk to the anathesiologist before the day or surgery to analyze your risk factors.
My general impression of open heart surgery is that the pain was somewhat less than I expected and controlled by medication. The unexpected aspect of the surgery was that I feel quite tired fairly easily. The physicians tell me that while the recovery time is 6-8 weeks, sometimes it takes months for people to get their energy levels back. Good luck and keep a positive mental attitute. It helps you get through everything.
In Reply to: Does heart-lung machine cause memory loss? posted by Susan M on October 10, 1998 at 23:12:40:
My time is coming soon for aortic valve replacement. I will probably opt for the mechanical valve and live with the coumadin. Hopefully I may not have to go through it again due to valve life expectancy. I have gotten so much good information from this web-site and information is "power". I think my cardiologist also appreciates my level of understanding when we consult. But what can you tell me about memory loss due to being on the heart/lung machine? I think I am more fearful of the anesthesia and heart/lung machine than the actual valve surgery. I have heard there can be personality change and memory loss that can last for months and maybe even be permanent. I mean if I am having this surgery to improve the quality of my life, I am very intimidated that I could come out of it a different person! Have not yet discussed this with my doctor. What is your spin on this and what are the statistics if you know them? I am very fit and healthy in general (am 50 with basically no risk factors and breeze right past the 25 year-olds) and only other surgery was a C-section 17 years ago (piece of cake!). Thanks for any information you can share!
Susan M
I had mitral valve surgery a little over a month ago and I am 45 with no other risk factors. I too was somewhat concerned before the surgery about the effects of the heart lung machine. These are issues you should discuss with the surgeon but my personal experience was that there was no detectible memory loss from a fairly long surgery (5 hours with about 2 /1/2 hours on the heart lung machine. My arteries were clear and there was no sign of cornary artery disease when the Heart Catherization was done. As a general rule I have found that the risk facts for an otherwise healthy individual are somewhat less that for an individual who has a number of complications to open heart surgery such as smoking, diabetes, heart attack, stroke or other vascular diseases. Again you should discuss these with the cardiologist and surgeon.
The other issue you may wish to discuss with your doctors relative to the heart lung machine is whether or not you should donate your own bood for surgery. (Autologuous I think its called). The heart lung machine tends to damage to a certain extent, red blood cells and some people are anemic when they get off bypass. Some physicians encourage iron supplementation to reduce this problem.
General anathesia risk for healthy patients is not trivial but runs around 1-2% depending on the individual. You may want to talk to the anathesiologist before the day or surgery to analyze your risk factors.
My general impression of open heart surgery is that the pain was somewhat less than I expected and controlled by medication. The unexpected aspect of the surgery was that I feel quite tired fairly easily. The physicians tell me that while the recovery time is 6-8 weeks, sometimes it takes months for people to get their energy levels back. Good luck and keep a positive mental attitute. It helps you get through everything.
