Home > Heart Surgery Blog > Recovery > "Memory Loss After Heart Surgery?" Asks Paige

"Memory Loss After Heart Surgery?" Asks Paige

Written By: Adam Pick, Patient Advocate, Author & Website Founder
Page Last Updated: June 8, 2025

I just received an interesting question about memory loss after heart valve surgery from Paige Mitchell of Virginia.

Paige writes, "Hi Adam, I had my aortic valve replaced in March, 2009. A few weeks later, I became agitated that I couldn't remember peoples' names, what I had just been doing, etc. I mentioned this to my cardiologist and he said this may happen as a side-effect due to anesthesia and the heart-lung machine lowering oxygen levels to the heart and brain during surgery. The cardiologist also said my memory loss would diminish over time. I'm 11 weeks post-op and still experiencing problems remembering. However, it is less than it was. Did you experience any of this? Thank you for writing your book and this blog! Paige"

While I never experienced any complications specific to memory loss, many patients report experiences of cognitive decline following heart surgery. In fact, this condition is often referred to as "pumphead" for the reasons that Paige provides above.

Interestingly enough, there is ongoing debate as to whether-or-not use of the heart-lung machine is really the source of memory loss after surgery.

Regardless... This post-operative condition does impact certain patients. For that reason, I have included several links below which provide additional information specific to pumphead and heart lung machines.

Written by Adam Pick - Patient & Website Founder

Adam Pick is a heart valve patient and author of The Patient's Guide To Heart Valve Surgery. In 2006, Adam founded HeartValveSurgery.com to educate and empower patients. This award-winning website has helped over 10 million people fight heart valve disease. Adam has been featured by the American Heart Association and Medical News Today.

Follow 450K