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85 years old patient's bypass blocked 3 months after the surgery
Dear Doctor,
My Grandmother had a quadruple bypass surgery 3 months ago. She is 85 years old, doctors warned us about the risks but also told us that a surgery is our best option since she is not overweight, generally in good health, never had a heart attack and is not a smoker. They used veins from her leg since the grafts in her chest wall were not in good shape either . She recovered fast, and started continuing her life as usual. However, 2 weeks ago, she started feeling shortness of breath. She went through an angiogram just recently, and doctors found out that only 1 of bypasses remained unblocked.
Currently she gets tired very easliy, even when eating. She can not sleep well at nights.
I want to find out if an angioplasty (baloon or laser) or another surgery would be an option for her. My main concern is due to her age. Since the blockage happened recently - within 3 months - is there a chance that it can be removed by angioplasty, or would the bypass grafts be too fragile right now. How do you find the age factor effecting this? What is the general procedure followed for as such patients? Do we have any other options?
Thank you sincerely for your time, help and opinions.
My Grandmother had a quadruple bypass surgery 3 months ago. She is 85 years old, doctors warned us about the risks but also told us that a surgery is our best option since she is not overweight, generally in good health, never had a heart attack and is not a smoker. They used veins from her leg since the grafts in her chest wall were not in good shape either . She recovered fast, and started continuing her life as usual. However, 2 weeks ago, she started feeling shortness of breath. She went through an angiogram just recently, and doctors found out that only 1 of bypasses remained unblocked.
Currently she gets tired very easliy, even when eating. She can not sleep well at nights.
I want to find out if an angioplasty (baloon or laser) or another surgery would be an option for her. My main concern is due to her age. Since the blockage happened recently - within 3 months - is there a chance that it can be removed by angioplasty, or would the bypass grafts be too fragile right now. How do you find the age factor effecting this? What is the general procedure followed for as such patients? Do we have any other options?
Thank you sincerely for your time, help and opinions.
A related discussion, HEART ATTACKS/DISEASE was started.
A related discussion, life span of grafts was started.
A related discussion, heart bypass was started.
A related discussion, congestive heart failure 2 1/2 weeks after quadruple bypass surgery was started.
My grandpa has recently had the same situation. He is in his late 70's and just recently had a massive heart attack to the side of his heart. The doctors said it was also congestive heart failure. He had a double bypass years ago, and now both are clogged. The doctors say theres nothing they can do, but I think they should be able to try to unclog them somehow, instead of just leaving him to suffer. He can barely breath. He gets out of breath from just rolling over in bed. Hes been falling asleep while talking lately. Its really scary to me, I wish there was something they could do for him!!
Dear Hande,
Unfortunately there are not many options for blocked bypass grafts. It is sometimes possible to pass a wire down the graft to open it back but this is not usually successful. Her other options would be continued medical therapy, attempted angioplasty of the native coronary arteries or repeat bypass surgery. Her age is a factor but not the only consideration. Which choice to make would depend on ischemic load (how severe the lack of blood flow to the heart), symptoms and her wishes.
Unfortunately there are not many options for blocked bypass grafts. It is sometimes possible to pass a wire down the graft to open it back but this is not usually successful. Her other options would be continued medical therapy, attempted angioplasty of the native coronary arteries or repeat bypass surgery. Her age is a factor but not the only consideration. Which choice to make would depend on ischemic load (how severe the lack of blood flow to the heart), symptoms and her wishes.
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