{"id":2099,"date":"2022-04-20T18:44:55","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T18:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/?page_id=2099"},"modified":"2023-09-27T13:35:32","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T13:35:32","slug":"what-can-patients-expect","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/what-can-patients-expect\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Q&#038;A: What Can Heart Surgery Patients Expect in the Hospital?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An excellent question that many heart valve patients have about their upcoming surgical or transcatheter procedure is, &#8220;What can I expect during my time in the hospital?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Given all the recent advances in medical technology specific to patient recovery, I wanted to help patients develop an accurate &#8220;set of expectations&#8221; about life in a hospital. For this reason, I interviewed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Patrick-McCarthy-Chicago-Illinois.php\">Dr. Patrick McCarthy<\/a>, who is the Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. During his career, Dr. McCarthy has performed over 10,000 cardiac procedures with more than 6,000 operations involving heart valve repair or replacement therapies. At HeartValveSurgery.com, Dr. McCarthy has successfully treated over 175 patients including Susan King, Lydia Webster and Steve August.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aNLYxVx44GY\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Key Learnings from Dr. McCarthy<\/h2>\n<p>In this video interview, Dr. McCarthy shared several important points that I wanted to jot down for patients in our community to consider:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The time that a patient may spend in the hospital varies greatly given the type of procedure and the overall health of the patient.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/profileImages\/195_129_152.jpg\" alt=\"Dr. Patrick McCarthy\" width=\"129\" height=\"152\" \/>Dr. Patrick McCarthy<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>For surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) procedures, Dr. McCarthy&#8217;s research shows that patients are in the hospital for six days on average. For a surgical mitral valve repair procedure, patients can expect to be in the hospital for five days.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2106 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/Average-Hospital-Heart-Surgery-Stays.jpg\" alt=\"Average Hospital Stays\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>For transcatheter procedures, including transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) and transcatheter mitral valve repair (e.g. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/mitraclip\/\">MitraClip<\/a>), many patients are now being discharged the day after the procedure.<\/li>\n<li>During Dr. McCarthy&#8217;s career, he has witnessed a major evolution specific to hospital duration for heart surgery patients. &#8220;I can\u2019t tell you how much it\u2019s evolved. It\u2019s so remarkable where we are in 2022 compared to way back in 1980s when I began as a young intern,&#8221; states Dr. McCarthy. &#8220;Back in those days, patients would frequently be in the hospital for about 10 or 14 days. The breathing tube would stay in overnight in every single patient, even the most simple patient. We have evolved and improved things so much. I didn\u2019t mention it.\u00a0 But, a lot of our &#8216;Fast-Track Patients&#8217; go home on Day 3. It\u2019s just remarkably better.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Patient comfort and pain management within the hospital is a key focus for Dr. McCarthy and his team at Northwestern Medicine.<\/li>\n<li>The use of &#8220;nerve blocks&#8221; has greatly diminished the pain experienced by patients. &#8220;We\u2019re doing things like nerve blocks in the operating room before the patient is really even woken up so that they wake up and they don\u2019t have much pain,&#8221; states Dr. McCarthy.\u00a0 &#8220;On a scale up to ten where ten is the worst pain you\u2019ve ever had, many of my patients say the first day is the hardest at a pain level of three or four. But, by the next day, it\u2019s more like a two.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/Images\/cryoanalgesia-heart-surgery-pain-management.jpg\" alt=\"Nerve Block During Heart Surgery\" width=\"600\" height=\"314\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Nerve blocks can also help patients avoid the use of narcotics which can make patients feel drowsy and extend recovery time.\u00a0 This further reduces our current social struggle with the opioid crisis here in the United States.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/Images\/opioid-crisis-heart-surgery.jpg\" alt=\"Opioid Crisis\" width=\"600\" height=\"307\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Following surgery, there are several milestones that a patient will experience at Northwestern Medicine prior to discharge including, but not limited to, removal of the breathing tube, sitting-up in a chair, removal of the chest tubes, walking in the hallways, and practicing going up-and-down stairs with a physical therapist.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. McCarthy suggests that patients may want to bring their own robe to the hospital, their phone and their phone charger (which patients often forget).\u00a0 All of the toiletries are provided by Northwestern Medicine to its patients.<\/li>\n<li>The ability for the care partner of a patient (e.g. spouse, partner, child) to stay overnight in the hospital is different at many hospitals.\u00a0 At Northwestern Medicine, a couch that folds out in the patient&#8217;s room is provided to care partners so they can spend the night in the hospital.\u00a0 However, it should be noted that COVID protocols within hospitals may impact visiting hours and the ability of a patient to stay overnight.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2107 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/Walking-In-Hospital-After-Heart-Surgery.jpg\" alt=\"Walking In Hospital After Heart Surgery\" width=\"650\" height=\"413\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>According to Dr. McCarthy, patient expectations of what might happen in the hospital is often much worse that it truly is. Doctor McCarthy states, &#8220;I think the thing that patients should understand is that many times the hospitalization is not nearly what they thought that it was going to be.\u00a0 It\u2019s a lot smoother.\u00a0 \u00a0Patients are not having as much pain as they may have heard from someone who went through an operation 30 years ago.\u00a0 A lot of the information that is out there is not necessarily accurate. It\u2019s just been a really remarkable and gratifying evolution to see how much easier this is on our patients and to have them be able to recover and go home.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2>Many Thanks Dr. McCarthy &amp; Northwestern Medicine<\/h2>\n<p>On behalf of our patient community, many thanks to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Patrick-McCarthy-Chicago-Illinois.php\">Dr. Patrick McCarthy<\/a> \u00a0for taking the time to share his clinical experience and research with us.\u00a0 And, many thanks to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/hospital\/northwestern-memorial-valve-program\">Northwestern Medicine<\/a>\u00a0for taking great care of the HeartValveSurgery.com patients.<\/p>\n<p>Related Links:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/early-surgery-asymptomatic-mitral-regurgitation\/\">Research Alert: Is Early Surgery Recommended for Asymptomatic Mitral Regurgitation Patients?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/emergency-aortic-aneurysm\/\">Emergency Aortic Valve &amp; Aneurysm Surgery<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2019\/12\/16\/savr-tavr-dr-chris-malaisrie\/\">Which Operation Did Bicuspid Aortic Valve Patient, Jim, Get \u2013 TAVR or SAVR?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Keep on tickin!<br \/>\nAdam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"cms.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"class_list":["post-2099","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-before-surgery"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2099"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3815,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2099\/revisions\/3815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}