{"id":2755,"date":"2022-10-17T22:42:42","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T22:42:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/?page_id=2755"},"modified":"2025-06-03T20:31:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T20:31:17","slug":"pumphead","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/pumphead\/","title":{"rendered":"Pumphead After Heart Surgery: What Should Patients Know?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I just received a great question from Tom about pumphead after heart surgery. In his email to me, Tom asked me, &#8220;Hi Adam, What is the truth about Pumphead? I have read conflicting reports about whether or not the heart-lung machine is potentially responsible for post-operative cognitive issues including confusion, anxiety, and forgetfulness.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>To provide Tom an expert response to this important question, I contacted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Junaid-Khan-Oakland-California.php\">Dr. Junaid Khan<\/a>, a leading cardiac surgeon at Sutter Health Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland, California. During his career, Dr. Khan has performed over 4,000 cardiac procedure with more than 2,000 operations involving heart valve repair and replacement operations.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aaEsA6IHMPU?rel=0\" width=\"650\" height=\"366\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\">Key Learnings About Pumphead<\/h2>\n<p>Here are the important insights about Pumphead we learned from Dr. Khan:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The heart-lung machine is used during heart surgery to take blood out of the body, puts oxygen into the blood, and then replenishes the body with the oxygen-rich blood.<\/li>\n<li>According to Dr. Khan, some people think that the heart-lung machine can create micro-particles which may cause neurocognitive changes in patients.<\/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\/heart-lung-machine-work-480.jpg\" alt=\"Heart Lung Machine\" width=\"480\" height=\"331\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Research, studies and data about specific to Pumphead and neurocognitive changes after heart surgery has been conflicting for the past 40 years.\u00a0 Dr. Khan states, &#8220;The data on this topic is very conflicting. It has been conflicting for 30 to 40 years.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Common reported neurocognitive changes experienced by patients include short-term memory loss, long-term memory loss and anxiety.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2761 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/pumphead-neurocognitive-symptoms.jpg\" alt=\"Pumphead Neurocognitive Symptoms\" width=\"650\" height=\"364\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A an important reason why the data about the impact of the heart-lung machine is conflicting is that other studies concluded that patients who undergo surgery that does not utilize a heart-lung machine also experience similar neurocognitive changes.\u00a0 As Dr. Khan states, &#8220;The reason the data is conflicting is when we do off-pump surgery, meaning when we haven&#8217;t used a heart or lung machine, sometimes we can exhibit the same changes.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Khan also provided insights about a very interesting study in which healthy college students were placed in a confined, hospital-like setting without having any operating performed. The student exhibited similar neurocognitive changes similar to Pumphead. &#8220;One of the most interesting studies that was done a few years back is taking healthy college students and just putting them in a restrained, confined environment like it would be in the hospital,&#8221; states Dr. Khan. &#8220;They had no procedures done, but they themselves after a week had some neurocognitive changes.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Specific to Pumphead symptoms, Dr. Khan suggested that most neurocognitive issues resolve at a year. &#8220;The good news is that most of these things do get significantly better at a year,&#8221; states Dr. Khan.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Khan suggests that if you are experiencing any symptoms, it is prudent to see a physician. Dr. Khan states, &#8220;The last thing I will tell you is that if you&#8217;re having any symptoms, I would not take them for granted and assume it&#8217;s Pumphead. You definitely want to be seen by a physician.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\">Thanks Tom and Dr. Khan!<\/h2>\n<p>I hope this helped Tom (and perhaps you) learn more about Pumphead and the heart-lung machine.<\/p>\n<p>Many thanks to Tom for submitting his question!\u00a0A special thanks goes out to Dr. Junaid Khan and Sutter Health Alta Bates Medical Center for taking such great care of heart valve patients!<\/p>\n<p>Related Articles:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Junaid-Khan-Oakland-California.php\">See Dr. Junaid Khan&#8217;s Interactive Surgeon Profile<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/hospital\/alta-bates-summit-valve-center\">Explore the Alta Bates Summit Heart Valve Microsite<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Keep on tickin!<br \/>\nAdam<\/p>\n<p>P.S. For the deaf and hard of hearing members of our community, I have provided a written transcript of my interview with Dr. Khan below.<\/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":[15],"class_list":["post-2755","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-recovery"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2755","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=2755"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5867,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2755\/revisions\/5867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}