{"id":5368,"date":"2025-04-01T23:02:28","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T23:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/?page_id=5368"},"modified":"2025-05-19T15:36:28","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T15:36:28","slug":"weight-gain-after-surgery","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/weight-gain-after-surgery\/","title":{"rendered":"Weight Gain After Heart Surgery: What Should Patients Know?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When patients are preparing for heart valve surgery, they anticipate pain, fatigue, and even post-operative complications (e.g. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/atrial-fibrillation\/\">atrial fibrillation<\/a>) that may be uncomfortable. However, many patients aren\u2019t prepared for the 10 to 20 pounds of post-operative weight gain they may experience.<\/p>\n<p>We received a patient question from David, who asked, \u201cI had heart valve surgery and gained 20 pounds immediately after the operation. Why is there so much weight gain following cardiac surgery?\u201d\u00a0 To answer David\u2019s question, I asked <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cedars-sinai.org\/provider\/richard-kim-3180245.html\">Dr. Richard Kim<\/a>, the Director of Pediatric and Congenital Cardiac Surgery at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, California.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qtTpwKCq0YM?rel=0?si=JASDnxPDFz-RfA1U\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Facts About Weight Gain After Heart Surgery<\/h2>\n<p>Here are several key insights shared by Dr. Kim in our discussion:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What causes the weight gain after surgery? \u201cThis is a great question,\u201d said Dr. Kim. \u201cSurgery involves using the heart-lung machine, which creates a lot of inflammation throughout the body.\u201d Dr. Kim explained that the body responds to inflammation by making the blood vessels in the heart leaky. Up to 20 pounds of fluid leaking from the heart can enter the soft tissue and cause weight gain.<\/li>\n<li>How is weight gain treated? Kim said patients are given diuretics after surgery to help their bodies get rid of the extra fluid, and over time, their weight will return to normal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5372 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/weight-gain-key-points-kim.jpg\" alt=\"Dr. Kim's Key Points\" width=\"650\" height=\"359\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h1>Thanks Dr. Kim and Cedars-Sinai!<\/h1>\n<p>On behalf of David and all the patients at HeartValveSurgery.com, we want to thank <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cedars-sinai.org\/provider\/richard-kim-3180245.html?_ga=2.49365923.446357360.1634831646-1907320216.1634688247&amp;_gac=1.61941342.1634688251.CjwKCAjw2bmLBhBREiwAZ6ugo7GB27SMhvsKaJGPKzeS61cBD1l7G3pCQr3JNu_BMojtIJAhlUE2GRoCN9YQAvD_BwE\">Dr. Richard Kim<\/a> and his team at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/hospital\/cedars-sinai-heart-institute\">Cedars-Sinai Medical Center<\/a> for everything they do for heart valve patients in our community and worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>Related links:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/videos\/pediatric-richard-kim-md\">Ask Dr. Richard Kim: Pediatric Heart Valve Surgery<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/complications-joanna-chikwe-md\/\">Surgeon Q&amp;A: Top 5 Complications After Heart Valve Surgery<\/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 patient community, we have provided a written transcript of our interview with Dr. Kim below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":4,"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-5368","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\/5368","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5368"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5816,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5368\/revisions\/5816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}