Paralyzed phrenic nerve

[Bellaluna1]

I am almost three months past my triple bypass. My surgeon said my shortness of breath is due to my left diaphram being pushed up because my phrenic nerve is paralyzed.  I was told it is a 50/50 chance that the nerve repairs itself.  I'm scared.  Has any one had a similar problem?

[SueRdLk]

I had a heart ablation in November 2011.  Thought it was going to be a breeze and back to my desk job in a couple of weeks.  Was I ever wrong. After 2 days ended up back in the hospital when my heart had 4-5 second pauses and I was passing out.  Then again about a week later when my blood pressure dropped to 70/30.  Have also had a problem with my breathing. I couldn't talk without constantly coughing.  Not a congestive cough something totally different. After tests found that my phrenic nerve on the right side is parallized. Breathing is better and I'm not coughing as much but still there. Has the nerve recovered from anyone that has had this problem?

[Bellaluna1]

Thank you so much for your timely, concise and informative reply. I am appreciative of your knowledge and thank you for sharing. My cardiologist says that we should wait a couple of months. He is the one who told me that, in his experience, it is 50/50 that the nerve will repair itself. My primary believes it will repair itself based on the good voice volume I have. I'm just plain scared. The impact on my life is very measurable already.  I have some breathing exercises I do to try to stimulate the nerve--  don't know if it helps but I live in hope.  I'll let you know where this goes. Many thanks and here's to a healthy 2010.

[ed34]

From what I remember researching some time ago, a cold substance, such as icey slush is used to 'protect' the nerve during surgery. It was apparent that many patients were experiencing left elevation on the diaphram after surgery but in most cases, the nerve recovered. This still left many patients with the problem. Research was done using an insulation pad between the nerve and the ice. This greatly reduced the number of instances of nerve damage.
I am not sure if the insulation pad became an integral part of the surgery but nerve damage is possible. It was first believed to be caused by accessing the left internal mammary artery for grafting rather than veins, but the research showed 41% of vein grafts gave problems to the nerve and 47% of artery grafts gave problems, meaning no real difference. The research insulated the nerve from ice in 58 patients having bypass procedures and only 6 received nerve damage. Of 42 patients having no insulation pad used in the procedure, 19 had serious nerve damage and an elevated diaphram.
There is a nerve supplying the left of the diaphram and one supplying the right, but damage to the left is far more common.
It isnt only bypasses which can cause this, it has been reported rarely that catheritization ablation procedures have also damaged the nerve.
I would be interested to know what your Cardiologist has said about your condition, what your hopes are for full recovery. I know there have been cases where recovery has occured but taken up to two years.