{"id":4123,"date":"2024-02-07T23:52:24","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T23:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/?page_id=4123"},"modified":"2024-02-08T22:02:20","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T22:02:20","slug":"stop","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/stop\/","title":{"rendered":"Surgeon Q&#038;A: Stopping The Heart During Cardiac Surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As a follow-up to our recent post about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/restart\/\">restarting the heart after cardiac surgery<\/a>, I just received an email from Ted who asked me, \u201cHow do cardiac surgeons stop the heart so they can repair or replace a defective valve?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To answer Ted&#8217;s question, I met with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Joanna-Chikwe-Los+Angeles-California.php\">Dr. Joanna Chikwe<\/a>, Chair of Cardiac Surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. During her extraordinary career, Dr. Chikwe has performed thousands of cardiac procedures.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FhEfo_NGPIk?si=yX7hvFAGUlJc13fL?rel=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Key Learnings About Stopping The Heart<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Dr. Chikwe told us there are two steps surgeons must take when stopping the heart. \u201cThe first thing we do is connect the patient to a heart-lung machine that takes over the function of both the heart and lungs,\u201d she said. The next step is to stop the heart. \u201cWe inject a very cold potassium solution into the heart, which stops it.\u201d When the heart stops, the normal blood supply is then diverted into the heart-lung machine for the duration of the surgery. \u201cThe miracle is that as soon as we replace its normal blood supply, the heart starts beating again,\u201d Dr. Chikwe said.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/profileImages\/304_129_188.jpg\" alt=\"Dr. Joanna Chikwe\" width=\"129\" height=\"188\" \/>Dr. Joanna Chikwe<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I had to ask a follow-up to Ted\u2019s question because I know our patients at home would also want to know, \u201cIs it safe to stop the heart for the period of time that it takes to repair or replace the valves?\u201d Dr. Chikwe said, \u201cWhen patients ask me that same question, I always use the analogy of flying from Los Angeles to New York or London, which happens thousands of times a year. You wouldn\u2019t think 300 people could get in a metal tin can, go down a runway at 600 miles an hour, take off and then land. Yet, we do it all the time. Heart surgery is so refined and sophisticated now that it\u2019s amazingly safe.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Thanks Dr. Chikwe and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center!<\/h2>\n<p>On behalf of Ted and our patient community, many thanks to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Joanna-Chikwe-Los+Angeles-California.php\">Dr. Joanna Chikwe<\/a> for explaining how cardiac surgeons stop the heart to repair or replace a valve and reassuring us that it\u2019s a safe and reliable procedure. We also want to thank Cedars-Sinai for continuing to take great care of our heart valve patients.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Related Links:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/go-red-women-dr-joanna-chikwe\/\">Heart Month: &#8220;Go Red for Women\u201d with Dr. Joanna Chikwe<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/robotic-mitral-valve-repair-surgery\/\">Robotic Mitral Valve Repair Surgery Explained by Dr. Joanna Chikwe<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/complications-joanna-chikwe-md\/\">Top 5 Complications After Heart Valve Surgery with Dr. Joanna Chikwe<\/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-4123","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\/4123","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=4123"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4148,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4123\/revisions\/4148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}