Each day, thousands of people in the U.S. have heart surgery. There are many different types of
heart surgery. Surgeries may be used to
- Repair or replace the valves that control blood flow
through the heart's chambers
- Bypass or widen blocked
or narrowed arteries to the heart
- Repair aneurysms, or bulges in the aorta, which can
be deadly if they burst
- Implant devices to regulate heart rhythms
- Destroy small amounts of tissue that disturb electrical flow through the heart
- Make channels in the heart muscle to allow blood from a heart chamber directly into
the heart muscle
- Boost the heart's pumping power with muscles taken from the back or abdomen
- Replace the damaged heart with a heart from a donor