{"id":868,"date":"2009-08-04T22:06:41","date_gmt":"2009-08-05T03:06:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2009\/08\/04\/pumphead-last-remain-time-duration\/"},"modified":"2025-06-08T17:02:51","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T22:02:51","slug":"pumphead-last-remain-time-duration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2009\/08\/04\/pumphead-last-remain-time-duration\/","title":{"rendered":"“How Long Will My Dad’s Pumphead Last After Heart Valve Surgery?” Asks Rob"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just received a follow-up question from Rob about pumphead and memory loss after heart surgery<\/a> that you might find interesting.<\/p>\n

Rob writes, “Hi Adam – I have a quick question. My dad just had open heart surgery two days ago to repair his mitral valve (it was a 4+ for regurgitation)<\/a>. He also has had previous issues with atrial fib<\/a>.\u00a0 Today, he was having some issues remembering particular words\/phrases. This concerns the nurses and us because of the possibility of brain issues after surgeries like these. I have a doctor-friend who says some of this is normal based on all the drugs he is on and the use of the heart-lung machine<\/a>. Did you experience any of the brain and thought issues with your surgery? Do you have any insight on that? Thanks so much, Rob”<\/p>\n

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Although I did not have any direct cognitive problems following heart surgery, I have written about this post-operative complication on several occasions.<\/p>\n

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To help Rob, I offered him a link to a recent blog about pumphead and memory loss after bypass surgery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After reviewing that page, Rob had one more question. He wrote back to me, “One thing not covered in your pumphead discussion is how long the ailment lasts?\u00a0 Any thoughts? Obviously, everyone is anxious to get the patient “back to his normal self”, but we all forget how long the process can truly take.\u00a0 So I hope we’re not just jumping the gun on all this.”<\/p>\n

Again, Rob raises another great question. Unfortunately, I have not read many clinical studies about the length of time for which “pumphead” may exist as a post-operative complication for bypass patients.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, researchers in The New England Medical Journal<\/a> have suggested that neurocognitive function does not vary between patients that undergo heart surgery with or without the heart-lung machine, “At 1 year after CABG, there was no significant difference between off-pump and on-pump CABG with respect to the primary composite outcome, the rate of repeat coronary revascularization, quality of life, or neurocognitive function.”<\/p>\n

In another Duke Health study<\/a>, the patients were tested for their cognitive capacity (i.e. mental ability) at four different times: before surgery, six weeks, six months, and five years after bypass surgery. Patients were deemed to have significant impairment if they had a 20% decrease in test scores.<\/p>\n

This study had four major findings:<\/p>\n