Happy Saturday. For those who are still puzzled as to why I underwent a thoracotomy instead of a sternotomy or less-invasive procedure, here’s a great explanation from my surgeon via his cardiac nurse at the University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center in Ann Arbor:
“Dr. Bolling went in via a right thoracotomy so that he would not have to cut back in through all the scar tissue that built up between your sternum and the front of your heart from your last surgery (in 2001). If he had gone back in through the front, you would be under anesthesia longer because he has to be extremely meticulous when cutting through the old scar tissue. When going through the right side, Dr. Bolling deflates both lungs and is able to get excellent visualization of the heart and your mitral and tricuspid valves. There is no scar tissue (or very little), and the surgery is much easier and faster.”
Makes sense.
(Copyright 2018)
