sternum rewire procedure recovery time

[robertguthm]

i am soooo frustrated.  please can anyone help me.

i am 2 years past triple CABG.  i have been in pain since day 1.  i finally went back ot the original surgeon and i am scheduled for a rewiring on july 7th.  the problem is he is out of town for 2 more weeks and i can't find anything on the internet about the rewiring procedure in itself.

all my doctor told me was that i would be out of the hospital in 2-3 days.  i never got recovery info from him, and i need to know for my job (and peace of mind!!).

can anyone tell me how long the recovery is and whether it is a tough recovery or not?  how quickly will i be able to go back to work on average.  he is doing a standard rewire (no plates).

can someone who has gone through this procedure, or a doctor, please tell me how long i am likely to be missing work.

HELP!

so strange that i can't find the actual procedure info after a week of googling different terms.

thanks in advance!

[Tanya1122]

I know you posted this a long time ago but I was wondering if you had the rewiring done? My dad had open heart surgery to replace a aortic valve on 9/23/15. He had major complications after surgery and a ventilator had to be put back in. He developed pneumonia and a collapsed lung. We later found out that x-rays were taken and the wiring had sliced through his sternum and broke bones. Surgery had to be scheduled on 9/30/15 and he was rewired. Today is only 10/2/15 and he is still on the ventilator and not sure of the outcome. Doctors tell us to be cautiously optimistic.

I also had a hard time finding a  lot of information on the web for rewiring which kinda tells me it is not that common. As far as recovery time we were told that it starts over as though he just had surgery. I would love to hear from you and how your rewiring went. I am glad the original surgeon agreed to do it for you. I hope that things got better for you after the rewiring procedure.

Tanya

[ed34]

I'm confused as to why re-wiring would be necessary 2 years after surgery. Can't they just cut the wires and remove any pieces protruding? Surely a sternum is just as strong as it was once it has healed?

[tammzz]

in my opinion, sternal rewiring is so much like having open heart surgery.....i had open heart surgery in 2004 and like 7 months later i had to have sternal rewiring, cuz i found out i had only been wired with four wires, and 2-of them were broke in mutiple places, so i had sternal rewiring 7  months after open heart surgery and in a couple week's i was over it, then somewhere along the way of working my butt off in housekeeping and thing's in general in life, the those wires broke, then in 2009  i had to go in and b rewired again, and so nothing like the first rewiring, it was just almost as bad as having open heart surgery...........i cudn't sleep, i had to try to sleep setting up if i slept at all, and the second rewiring, i had 9 wires  put in and 6 of the wires were double, dr said it would take an act of congress to break those, lo and behold, they are broke again, cuz two months after having the rewiring done i fell and broke my ankle and had to be on crutches, and the weight of being on crutches broke the wires in my chest again, going to heart surgeon tomorrow to c if they will do surgery again, and after second rewiring, i had surgery to remove the broken wires and now have more, wish me luck

[robertguthm]

thanks for the reply.  could not really gather a recovery time from the links.  

unfortunately, i have to use my original cardiac surgeon because i have lost my insurance due to lost work from this, and he is doing it free.

i see all sorts of good things written about the plates, but i'm afraid i am stuck with the rewire.  :(

still looking for approximate recovery time if anyone sees this that can help.

THX!!

[hwka]

Try this link for information:
http://journals.lww.com/annalsplasticsurgery/Abstract/2007/06000/Rigid_Fixation_of_the_Sternum_Using_a_New_Coupled.9.aspx

Also elsewhere on Medhelp....
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Heart-Disease/Fractured-Sternal-Wire/show/529045

It is always a good move to get a second professional opinion.
Read as much as possible so that you are able to ask intelligent questions of the person that is doing the procedure.
Knowing what a procedure involves will help you to relax and be confident of the outcome.