Determine When Bypass Surgery Is Necessary
Patients with chest pain or heart problems may find themselves visiting their doctor more often than they'd like. Any patient who fears severe chest pain, potential heart attack, or has a family history of any type of heart disease would benefit from visiting their doctor to determine whether and when bypass surgery is necessary.
Instructions
1. Consult your doctor first. Many serious heart and health problems can be averted by early detection. Don't fear bad news, and don't put it off. If you've experienced chest pains or fear a heart attack, just go. An initial check up will either put your mind at ease or put you on the road toward a better understanding and treatment of your problem.
2. Perform further tests and evaluations. If your doctor is unsure of your heart's condition or wishes to perform further tests, your best option is to comply with further testing. These tests are generally non-surgical procedures, such as blood tests, heart monitoring through an EKG and stress tests used to determine the state of your heart.
3. Discuss the test results with your doctor. Depending upon the procedure, you may wait up to a week for good results.
4. After you've received the results, discuss all options with your doctor. If the doctor is still unsure of your results and correct your problem, an angiogram may be performed.
5. An angiogram is an imaging test often involving dye that lets your doctor observe narrow, blocked, malformed arteries in the heart (and in other parts of the body).
6. Discuss the angiogram results. Your doctor might recommend an angioplasty--a non-surgical procedure in which a balloon is used to open narrowed or blocked blood vessels. If blockage of your coronary arteries or major blood vessels is too severe for an angioplasty, your doctor will most likely recommend that you have the bypass surgery.
Tags: your doctor, blood vessels, Bypass Surgery Necessary, chest pain, Determine When