{"id":922,"date":"2009-09-09T21:37:14","date_gmt":"2009-09-10T02:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2009\/09\/09\/dizzy-after-heart-surgery\/"},"modified":"2025-06-24T07:02:34","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T12:02:34","slug":"dizzy-after-heart-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2009\/09\/09\/dizzy-after-heart-surgery\/","title":{"rendered":"“Dizzy After Heart Valve Surgery?” Asks Rick"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just received a very interesting question from Rick about dizziness after heart valve surgery.<\/p>\n

Rick writes, “Adam – I had mitral valve repair surgery<\/a>. Two weeks after surgery I am home and walking four times per day around our neighborhood. Everything feels good except when I first stand up from a sitting position.\u00a0 I get dizzy even when I stand up slowly. Do other patients experience this? Thanks, Rick”<\/p>\n

\"Dizzy<\/div>\n

To answer Rick’s question, I can share that I too had bouts of dizziness after heart valve replacement surgery<\/a>. The dizzy spells were very similar to how Rick described it… When standing up, I would become slightly off-balance for one or two seconds. To learn more about dizziness after open heart surgery, I did some research. According to MedHelp, “Dizziness is not a common post-operative problem in patients who have had heart valve replacements, so this problem may be unrelated to the valve surgery.”<\/p>\n

That said, The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS)<\/a> suggests that “being dizzy” after heart surgery may be related to medication. The STS notes that medicines used in the hospital can cause several side effects. The STS then lists a series of side effects (shown below) which explicitly includes “dizzy or lightheaded when standing”:<\/p>\n