collapsed artery after surgery

[mary1571]

My father in law had quad bypass surgery 1 year ago. Was doing great. A few months ago he noticed on a family trip he was feeling very tired. He was told by his cardio dr yesterday that 1 of the arteries replaced in the surgery (taken from his leg) collapsed. And on his ekg the normal up and down motions are mainly going down on the test sheet( that  up and down scribbles ). His Dr only said they would keep on eye on it. Dad is worried to death that it will mean another open heart surgery. Anyone heard of this happening? thank you!! Mary

[mary1571]

Thank you both for your comments and advice. I am trying to convince him to get  2nd opinion as  he is very scared he will be opened up again. He thought the Dr said stents don't get used in these cases. Any thoughts?

[remar]

i agree with the above post. my mother had quad by-pass surgery, three days later two of them collapsed, she had to get them stented, that was nine years ago and she's doing great. your father in law needs to get a second opinion, just keeping an eye on it is'nt good enough. take care. remar

[kenkeith]

The information the doctor gave is not very helpful.  The ekg tracing of interest in this matter would be the ST interval and can be up or down or unspecified.  Depending which of 12 electrodes placed on the chest for output to the EKG would determine the location of a possible ischemic (lack of blood flow), can indicate an MI. An EKG is not very reliable to diagnose ischemia or a an MI and requires further testing i.e. stress test, ct angiogram or cath angiogram.

If it is closed (implant vessel), in all probability it can be reopened with a stent. I'm not sure what keeping an eye on it means, but it does indicate it may not be serious, or not taken as anything very seriously. If it is closed (totally collapsed), that can be very serious?!  Partially collapsed?!  You may want your father to get a 2nd opinion.