complications after bypass surgery

[KenyaLou]

My Uncle had 4-bypass surgery about 3 weeks ago.  They kept his heart beating.  He first was experiencing a fast heartbeat and was put on Coumadin.  He is weak as water.  He was sent home and started swelling really bad and retaining fluid in his upper chest cavity.  He then developed an absess (abscess) where the incision was after a CT Scan was done to determine it was an absess (abscess).  He now has a collapsed lung and has to go into surgery again in the morning to remove absess (abscess) and reinflate the lung.  Is all of this normal.  What is going on.  We can't get any answers.

[Archibald S Miller III, MD,FACS]

I am Dr. Arch Miller of the reconstructive surgery forum. Your uncle has suffered one of the complications suffered about 2.5% of the time with open heart surgery. It is serious and the treatment is to clean the area up, and to try and close the sternum again possibly using muscle flaps. There are many new procedures being done for this, such as the procedure seen at the web site rapidsternalclosure.com. This animation is a new way of putting the sternum back together. I hope all has gone well. Respectfully,

                             arch s miller ms md facs