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Have Left Ventricular Hypertrophy. Experiencing Severe Breathlessness. Is This Dangerous?
Question: My husband has left ventricular hypertrophy. he has had a heart attack (3 years ago) and arrhythmia (2 years ago) he is now experiencing severe breathlessness after just limited excercise. he is on medication but it is not helping the symptoms. he is now being refered to London (UCL) and there is talk of a procedure called myectomy for him. is this dangerous? I am really worried about him having this surgery. are there alternatives?
Hello XXXXXXX
Thanks for writing in.
I am a qualified and certified cardiologist and I read your mail with diligence.
Oxygenated blood for various organs of the body is pumped by left ventricle.
When the heart attack occured in your husband three years ago, left ventricle became severely affected by lack of blood supply. This affected the ability of heart to pump. Initially, the hypertrophy of walls of the ventricle and lateron enlargement of heart would have taken care of pumping the requisite volume of oxygen carrying blood to various organs of body. Now, even that is not fully effective. This has resulted in pooling of the blood in left ventricle after each beat. That results in pooling of blood in chamber of heart emptying into left ventricle that is left atrium. Left atrium receives oxygenated blood from lungs, thus veins carrying blood from lungs tend to overflow, this leads to breathlessness. All this has occured because of change of architecture of the left ventricle. Left ventricle has responded by hypertrophy and enlargement. The option before cardiologist is to make the left ventricle an effective pump by correcting its architecture. This is sought to be achived by mymectomy. It is open heart surgery on cardiopulmonary bypass. That means, during major duration of surgery an artificial heart lung machine shall be used which will take over function of lungs and heart. This is to enable surgeons to be able to repair the still heart efficiently. Like open heart surgery there is finite risk with the procedure but acceptable when compared to rapidly downhill course otherwise. If there is any question you have I will be only too happy to answer. Good Luck.
With best wishes.
Dr Anil Grover,
Cardiologist
M.B.;B.S, M.D. (Internal Medicine) D.M.(Cardiology)http://www/ WWW.WWWW.WW .
Thanks for writing in.
I am a qualified and certified cardiologist and I read your mail with diligence.
Oxygenated blood for various organs of the body is pumped by left ventricle.
When the heart attack occured in your husband three years ago, left ventricle became severely affected by lack of blood supply. This affected the ability of heart to pump. Initially, the hypertrophy of walls of the ventricle and lateron enlargement of heart would have taken care of pumping the requisite volume of oxygen carrying blood to various organs of body. Now, even that is not fully effective. This has resulted in pooling of the blood in left ventricle after each beat. That results in pooling of blood in chamber of heart emptying into left ventricle that is left atrium. Left atrium receives oxygenated blood from lungs, thus veins carrying blood from lungs tend to overflow, this leads to breathlessness. All this has occured because of change of architecture of the left ventricle. Left ventricle has responded by hypertrophy and enlargement. The option before cardiologist is to make the left ventricle an effective pump by correcting its architecture. This is sought to be achived by mymectomy. It is open heart surgery on cardiopulmonary bypass. That means, during major duration of surgery an artificial heart lung machine shall be used which will take over function of lungs and heart. This is to enable surgeons to be able to repair the still heart efficiently. Like open heart surgery there is finite risk with the procedure but acceptable when compared to rapidly downhill course otherwise. If there is any question you have I will be only too happy to answer. Good Luck.
With best wishes.
Dr Anil Grover,
Cardiologist
M.B.;B.S, M.D. (Internal Medicine) D.M.(Cardiology)http://www/ WWW.WWWW.WW .
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Thank you VERY much. Very helpful and informative
You are welcome. Pleasure is all mine as it was wonderful inter-acting with such well informed person. All the best for your health. Take If you have no more follow up questions/ query (which I would love to answer) please close this query with stars and comments.
Regards.
Sincerely
Dr Anil Grover
Regards.
Sincerely
Dr Anil Grover
Note: For further queries related to coronary artery disease and prevention, click here.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
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