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What Causes A Large Painful Bump On Head After A Open Heart Surgery?

Posted on Mon, 13 Jun 2016

Question: My husband had a major open heart surgery on Christmas eve. On waking up the next day he had a very large bump on the left side of his head with numbness to the top of his head. when the area is touched I causes severe pain. We have asked the doctors about it but nothing is said. I think they think he is imaging it. It is now 4 months since his operation. Having being cleared to go back to work even though we have explained the on going systems none of them seem interested enough to get to the bottom of this on going pain and headaches. I have wondered if there could be some nerve damage causing the pain. But I am no doctor I only see he symptoms and reactions he has to the pain. He gets very tired at night and forgetful and tires easily when doing anything. With these symptoms he really can't effectively return to work at the present. I realise it will be difficult to analyse what is wrong but we have wondered if he receive some kind of injury to the head during the operation.
Regards XXXXXX
Thank you

Answered by Dr. Dr. Prasad J (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Don't seem to be related to the surgery....

Detailed Answer:
Hello Maam,

I went through this post and I empathize with his condition. However I am unable to relate and explain the appearance of this bump, pain and sensory disturbances post open heart surgery. Open heart surgery is a major surgery where the patient is completely unconscious under influence of general anaesthesia. Doctors who operate on him wouldn't touch his head however. There may be chances of injuries, however injuries don't present this way. Localised injuries to the head if any don't last this long.

Therefore I am unable to relate his symptoms to the surgery in any means.

Further since scans and radiological test are reported normal, his symptoms may be considered as neuralgic pain. It is best treated symptomatically with pregabalin (lyrica) or carbamazepine drugs. A neurologist will be the ideal specialist to manage such neuralgias. So I will direct your husband to consult a neurologist and discuss further.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you need clarifications.

Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Dr. Prasad J (2 hours later)

Thank you for your answer. The reason that we associated it with the operation was that he came to the day after with this big bump on his head, and the whole surrounding area was numb and the headache and pain started then and has carried on. It seemed that he may have had his head bumped some how. They did have trouble restarting his heart and temporary fixed a pacemaker to his chest to assist. His vitals were all extremely low and kept him sedated for an extra 24hrs to bring back to normal. I don't know if this is associated or not.
I thank you for you reply I do know it would be hard to diagnose anything. But will suggest maybe an appointment with a neurologist could be a possibility.
Regards Suzanne Flintoff

Answered by Dr. Dr. Prasad J (12 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
I would look forward to neurologist opinion...

Detailed Answer:
Yes, based on your description I would assume this bump to be caused by an unintentional injury given the fact that it was largely localised. However as I mentioned earlier injury induced head bumps are known to settle down. It is not known to last this long.

At this point, as he is currently troubled by pain / hypersensitive touch and numbness, I would look forward to know the neurologist's opinion and to know the type of response he has with those drugs. Hopefully he feels better after treatment.

I will be glad to answer your queries if any. Please close this discussion after all your questions are answered.

Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar