The preoperative of cardiac surgery is very important for the success of the operation. During the preoperative phase, the doctor should make a thorough investigation of the patient's health status, requiring tests and advising to adopt healthy lifestyle habits such as losing weight and quitting smoking, for example.
Preoperative exams for cardiac surgery
The tests that must be performed in the preoperative period of cardiac surgery are:
- chest x-ray, echocardiogram, doppler of the carotid arteries, cardiac catheterization and angiography of the aorta and coronary arteries.
The analysis of the patient's clinical history must be done thoroughly, so the doctor will be aware of the patient's lifestyle habits such as smoking, not exercising, food, hygiene, drug use, taking medications, vaccines that were taken, illnesses previous and other surgeries already performed.
In the physical examination, the doctor must observe the skin, the inside of the mouth, perform pulmonary and cardiac auscultation, palpation of the abdomen and neurological evaluation.
Important recommendations for before cardiac surgery
Before being operated on from the heart, it is recommended that the individual:
- Give up smoking; Have diabetes controlled, If necessary, take the vaccines that are missing; Weight loss, if obese, Prepare the cardiovascular and respiratory system with physical therapy exercises; Do not take any aspirin or anticoagulants, that can interfere with coagulation and the healing process.
After following all these steps, the patient can then perform cardiac surgery. But in any case, if there is a need to perform cardiac surgery urgently and there is no time to perform the preoperative, it must be done, but the success of the surgery may be compromised.
