Doctor Q&A: What Can Heart Valve Surgery Patients Expect In The Hospital?

To help patients better manage their expectations about staying in a hospital, we interviewed Dr. Patrick McCarthy, 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 some form of heart valve repair or heart valve replacement therapy:

Select questions asked to Dr. McCarthy include:

1. How long are heart valve patients in the hospital?
2. How has the length of stay changed during the past 20 years?
3. What medical advances are helping shorten the patient's length of stay?
4. When is the breathing tube (ventilator) taken out?
5. What therapies are minimizing pain and discomfort for patients in the hospital?
6. What happens during a typical stay in the hospital?
7. How long am I in the intensive care unit?
8. What should patients bring to the hospital?
9. Can care partners (spouses, relatives, children) stay with patients in their rooms?
10. What else should patients know about their hospital stays prior to discharge?

[cardmonty]

Thanks. I’m going to have Aortic Valve replacement at MD Anderson Cooper hospital in a couple of weeks. I just had a Catheterization yesterday to explore my problems in my heart. No blockages - only 1 artery at 20%. I’m a 61 year old male who has been suffering with low diastolic pressure for several months now. I’ve lost 150lbs on Healthy Keto over the last 3 years - that’s really helped. I went from 321lbs to 170lbs.

[monalafleur]

Thank you so much for this video. Im scheduled to have OHS for AVR ( Aortic Valve Replacement ). Seeing all your videos is very informative and helpful. I am 69 year old retired ICU nurse and have never been in hospital overnight before. So my anxiety and emotions are all over the place. Thank you so much for having this site to visit. Really appreciate you and your efforts.

[PeteHob]

A patient rated pain of about 3 or 4 on the first day or two? Can that possibly be accurate? I understand the staff doesn’t want to scare potential patients it please don’t sugarcoat the first 3 days after. A 3 or a 4 to me sounds more like a mild headache