Frequently Asked Questions

Avoid weight lifting and driving for three months.

You will be given pain killer intravenously (IV) in the postoperative period, which reduces your pain to a negligible level.

Surgical time varies depending upon the type of surgery and diseased condition of your heart. Usually, the average heart surgery lasts for 4-6 hours.

Get up in the morning with a positive mind. You are not allowed to take anything by mouth.

You will be under the effect of Anesthesia, totally in an unconscious state, you won’t feel pain, and you won’t even know that the surgery has been done.

Based on the variation in the ECG during a heart attack, doctors recognize two types of heart attacks. ST-elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) Non-ST-elevation Myocardial infarction (NSTEMI). STEMI and NSTEMI differ not only in the variation in the ECG but also in their severity. In general, STEMI is more likely to be immediately fatal or disabling than NSTEMI. Consequently, STEMI requires more urgent treatment than NSTEMI in most instances. However, this is just a thumb rule: Some NSTEMIs can be equally ominous and may require emergency treatment just like STEMI.

First, seek help. Make any person in proximity aware of your situation. The most important step to ensure a safe outcome in a heart attack is to see that you reach a hospital with appropriate facilities as soon as possible. It is a good practice to be aware of the hospitals around you and the facilities they provide. When someone has chest pain or other symptoms suggestive of a heart attack, the immediate first aid should be to take 350 mg of the soluble form of Aspirin (common trade names Disprin or Aspisol in India). Ideally, the tablet should be chewed because the medicine is absorbed from the mucosal membrane of the oral cavity and starts to act immediately. If the patient cannot chew the tablet for some reason, the tablet can be dispersed in a small quantity of water and taken orally. If I see someone who is having a heart attack, what can I do to ensure he survives till help arrives? Call the nearest hospital with cardiac facilities as soon as you recognise that someone around you might be having an ongoing attack. Shift the person to a comfortable position and reassure them. If possible, give them an Aspirin tablet to chew. While waiting for help to arrive, monitor their breathing and pulse. If they lose consciousness, initiate Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

Various risk factors increase the chances of a person having a heart attack. Smoking, High Blood pressure, Diabetes. physical inactivity, high cholesterol levels, obesity, and poor diet are important risk factors. These can be potentially controlled to reduce heart attack risk. Therefore, these are termed Modifiable Risk factors. Older age, male sex, family history, Post-menopausal state in women are factors that can increase heart attack risk but cannot be altered. These are called non-modifiable risk factors. South Asians appear to have a very high risk of having heart attacks at a younger age, compared to Caucasians and Asians such as Japanese.

It is a procedure to detect blockages in the blood vessels of the heart. A thin hollow tube or catheter is inserted via the artery of the forearm or the thigh. Through this catheter, a special contrast dye is injected into the coronary arteries and X-ray images are obtained to visualize the blood flow in the coronary arteries.

Coronary angioplasty is a procedure performed to widen narrow or blocked sections of the coronary vessels thereby restoring the blood flow. A thin balloon is inserted into the coronary artery and inflated at the site of the block to widen the narrowed artery. This makes a way for the opening of the blockages. A stent is generally then placed to prevent future blockages.