{"id":2999,"date":"2022-12-13T23:27:48","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T23:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/?page_id=2999"},"modified":"2025-04-26T15:55:51","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T15:55:51","slug":"complications-joanna-chikwe-md","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/complications-joanna-chikwe-md\/","title":{"rendered":"Surgeon Q&#038;A: Top 5 Complications After Heart Valve Surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Unexpected complications after heart valve surgery can be confusing, scary and frustrating for patients, their family members and friends. As a result, I am often asked important patient questions like &#8220;Are post-operative complications normal?&#8221; and &#8220;What are the most common types of complications after heart surgery?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>To learn more, we interviewed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Joanna-Chikwe-Los+Angeles-California.php\">Dr. Joanna Chikwe<\/a>, the Chair of Cardiac Surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. During her extraordinary career, Dr. Chikwe has performed thousands of cardiac procedure with many involving heart valve repair and replacement therapies. In our community, Dr. Chikwe has successfully treated many patients including Leila Saeid, Claudio Landeros and Mavis White.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OxizmaibYsM\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Key Learnings About Heart Surgery Complications<\/h2>\n<p>Here are key learnings from Dr. Chikwe\u2019s interview about post-operative cardiac surgery complications:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>According to Dr. Chikwe, complications after heart surgery are not common. &#8220;Complications are really <em>uncommon<\/em> after heart valve surgery. Most patients will leave the hospital without suffering any of them.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Complication #1: Atrial Fibrillation. Approximately one-in-five patients will experience <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/atrial-fibrillation\/\">atrial fibrillation<\/a> after heart surgery. Atrial fibrillation is an irregular heartbeat that typically resolves by itself in the first few weeks following cardiac surgery.\u00a0 Some patients may receive medication to treat atrial fibrillation and a small number of patients may require a DC cardioversion (a small electric shock) to return the heart back to normal rhythm.<\/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\/atrial-fibrillation-mitral-valve-maze.jpg\" alt=\"Atrial Fibrillation Complication After Heart Surgery\" width=\"493\" height=\"335\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Complication #2: Fluid Overload. The body&#8217;s natural reaction to trauma and stress is fluid build-up. As a result, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2011\/10\/14\/weight_gain-after-heart-surgery-fluid-retention\/\">patients may gain weight<\/a> that is expressed as puffy hands or ankles due to fluid within the tissues that obscure the bones. To manage fluid overload, Dr. Chikwe may prescribe her patients Lasix to help the body reduce fluid. It&#8217;s important for patients to track their weight should they experience fluid overload.\u00a0 &#8220;If you see your weight going up a pound every day,&#8221; states Dr. Chikwe, &#8220;That\u2019s definitely not calories and fat gain. That might be fluid overload, and that would be a sensible reason to call your cardiologist or your cardiac surgeon and just adjust the dose of diuretics that you\u2019re taking.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3008 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/fluid-overload-complication-heart-surgery.jpg\" alt=\"Fluid Overload (Weight Gain) After Heart Surgery\" width=\"350\" height=\"287\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Complication #3: Pain. Patients may experience both short-term pain during their early recovery in the hospital and long-term pain following discharge.\u00a0 Dr. Chikwe suggests there are several considerations specific to pain for patients who receive a traditional sternotomy incision or a minimally-invasive incision including the incision, the chest tube removal and the use of nerve blocks to greatly reduce pain and discomfort. Given medical advances in pain management, most of Dr. Chikwe&#8217;s patients leave the hospital on Tylenol or over-the-counter medication.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-3003 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/pain-management-heart-surgery-complication.jpg\" alt=\"Pain Complication After Heart Surgery\" width=\"338\" height=\"334\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Complication #4: Stroke. While a very serious concern, the patient risk of stroke is very low. &#8220;The overall risk of stroke for most patients is really, really low, less than half a percent risk with their surgery,&#8221; states Dr. Chikwe.\u00a0 &#8220;That\u2019s because we have understood and learned so much about how to reduce the risk based on how we work things up before your surgery, how we preform the surgery, and how we manage things like your blood pressure, your heart rhythm, and your medications after the surgery.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-3005 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/stroke-complication-after-heart-surgery.jpg\" alt=\"Stroke Complication After Heart Surgery\" width=\"350\" height=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Complication #5: Valve Replacement and Valve Repair Failure.\u00a0 Specific to heart valve replacements, it is possible that both mechanical and tissue valve replacements can fail.\u00a0 Biological valves, also known as tissue valves, typically last for 10-15 years. A failing heart valve may be re-replaced using surgical or transcatheter techniques. Valve repair failure is a little different, according to Dr. Chikwe. &#8220;We know that certainly in the mitral setting that about 10% of patients may have a slight or a more moderate leak at about 10 years,&#8221; states Dr. Chiwke. &#8220;After a good mitral valve repair, a small minority of them [patients] may need another procedure to fix that valve. Again, redo surgery is safe, and most patients, the vast majority, a mitral valve repair is a lifelong solution.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-3006 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/valve-replacement-failure-example-complication.jpg\" alt=\"Heart Valve Replacement Failure\" width=\"376\" height=\"313\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Many Thanks Dr. Chikwe &amp; Cedars-Sinai!<\/h2>\n<p>Many thanks to Dr. Chikwe for taking the time to educate our patient community about complications after heart valve surgery. We also want to thank the entire Cedars-Sinai team for taking such great care of patients from the HeartValveSurgery.com community!<\/p>\n<p>Related Links:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Joanna-Chikwe-Los+Angeles-California.php\">See Dr. Chikwe\u2019s Interactive Surgeon Profile<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/mitral-valve-repair-dr-joanna-chikwe\/\">Mitral Valve Repair: Different Approaches for Different Patients with Dr. Chikwe<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/go-red-women-dr-joanna-chikwe\/\">Dr. Chikwe Answers Female Patient Questions About Heart Surgery<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/patient-recovery-expectations\/\">Patient Success Story: Leila&#8217;s Robotic Mitral Valve Repair<\/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. Chikwe 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-2999","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\/2999","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=2999"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5534,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2999\/revisions\/5534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}