Heart Procedures and Surgeries | American Heart Association

If you've had a heart attack, you may have already had certain procedures to help you survive your heart attack and diagnose your condition. For example, many heart attack patients have undergone thrombolysis, a procedure that involves injecting a clot-dissolving agent to restore blood flow in a coronary artery.This procedure is administered within a few (usually three) hours of a heart attack. If this treatment isn't done immediately after a heart attack, many patients will need to undergo coronary angioplasty or coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) later to improve blood supply to the heart muscle.

View an illustration of coronary arteries(link opens in new window).

See diagnostic tests and proceduresto better understand the tests you may have to undergo to find out if you had a heart attack, how much damage was done and what degree of coronary artery disease (CAD)you have.

Also known as Percutaneous Coronary Interventions [PCI], Balloon Angioplasty and Coronary Artery Balloon Dilation.

View an animation of angioplasty.

Special tubing with an attached deflated balloon is threaded up to the coronary arteries. The balloon is inflated to widen blocked areas where blood flow to the heart muscle has been reduced or cutoff. Often combined with implantation of a stent (see below)to help prop the artery open and decrease the chance of another blockage. Considered less invasive because the body is not cut open. Lasts from 30 minutes to several hours. May require an overnight hospital stay.

Learn more about cardiac medications, including dual antiplatelet therapy, that you may need to take after your procedure to prevent complications and to put you on the path for the best recovery.

Download our patient sheet: What is Coronary Angioplasty?

Similar to angioplasty except that the catheter has a laser tip that opens the blocked artery. Pulsating beams of light vaporize the plaque buildup.

(Also known as Heart Valve Replacement Surgery)

Watch animations of heart valves and heart valve surgery options

Replaces an abnormal or diseased heart valvewith a healthy one.

Download our patient sheet: What is Heart Valve Surgery?

Similar to angioplasty except that the catheter has a rotating shaver on its tip to cut away plaque from the artery.

(Also known as CABG, pronounced "cabbage," Coronary Artery Bypass Graft done via Open-Heart Surgery)

View an illustration of coronary bypass(link opens in new window).

Treats blocked heart arteries by taking arteries or veins from other parts of your body called grafts and using them to reroute the blood around the clogged artery to supply blood flow to your heart muscle. View ananimation of blood flow(link opens in new window). A patient may undergo one, two, three or more bypass grafts, depending on how many coronary arteries are narrowed. Requires several days in the hospital.

Download our patient sheet:What is Coronary Bypass Surgery?

Learn more about cardiac medications, including dual antiplatelet therapy, that you may need to take after your procedure to prevent complications and to put you on the path for the best recovery.

An experimental procedure in which skeletal muscles are taken from a patient's back or abdomen. Then they're wrapped around an ailing heart. This added muscle, aided by ongoing stimulation from a device similar to a pacemaker, may boost the heart's pumping motion.

Removes a diseased heart and replaces it with a healthy human heart when a heart is irreversibly damaged. Uses hearts from organ donation.

(Also known as Limited Access Coronary Artery Surgery and includes Port-Access Coronary Artery Bypass (PACAB or PortCAB) and Minimally Invasive Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (MIDCAB or minimally invasive CABG)

An alternative to standard bypass surgery (CABG). Small incisions ("ports") are made in the chest. Chest arteries or veins from your leg are attached to the heart to "bypass" the clogged coronary artery or arteries. The instruments are passed through the ports to perform the bypasses. The surgeon views these operations on video monitors rather than directly. In PACAB, the heart is stopped and blood is pumped through an oxygenator or "heart-lung" machine. MIDCAB is used to avoid the heart-lung machine. It's done while the heart is still beating. Requires several days in the hospital.

(Also known as Catheter Ablation)

A catheter with an electrode at its tip is guided through the veins to the heart muscle with real-time, moving X-rays (fluoroscopy) displayed on a video screen. The catheter is placed at the exact site inside the heart where cells give off the electrical signals that stimulate the abnormal heart rhythm. Then a mild, painless radiofrequency energy (similar to microwave heat) is transmitted to the pathway. This destroys carefully selected heart muscle cells in a very small area (about 1/5 of an inch).

Learn more about Ablation.

A stent is a wire mesh tube used to prop open an artery during angioplasty.The stent stays in the artery permanently.

View an animation of a stent(link opens in new window).

Coronary narrowings can form again within stents and are referred to as restenosis.

Download our patient sheet: What is a Stent?(PDF)

Learn more about cardiac medications, including dual antiplatelet therapy, that you may need to take after your procedure to prevent complications and to put you on the path for the best recovery.

An incision is made on the left breast to expose the heart. Then, a laser is used to drill a series of holes from the outside of the heart into the heart's pumping chamber. In some patients TMR is combined with bypass surgery. In those cases an incision through the breastbone is used for the bypass. Usually requires a hospital stay.

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Heart Procedures and Surgeries | American Heart Association