Heart bypass failure

[gemstar82]

Hi

My mum has had results of her ct angiogram today and cardiologist has told her that potentially the grafts may have failed. Got to go and have angiogram through groin the next few weeks. Has anybody had experience of grafts failing and if so what happened?

[MichaelJH Heart Star]

Unfortunately graft failure is not unknown. Sometimes revascularization is an option but other factors such as age and pre-existing medical conditions such as diabetes and COPD can come into play.

Until your mother has had the angiogram the full story will not be revealed. I hope things work out well but in the interim she needs to lead a really healthy lifestyle.

[gemstar82 in reply to MichaelJH]

Yes we have been trying to encourage her to lead a healthy lifestyle. Her mobility is restricted so exercising is not good she is also suffering from gout pain and is under rheumatology they suspect her water tablets are causing it but obviously cannot come off them she gave up smoking too. Sorry what is revascularization? Thank you for your reply.

[MichaelJH Heart Star in reply to gemstar82]

Revascularization is redoing some or all of the bypasses. It more challenging as there is less choice of donor blood vessels, there may be scar tissue and there is less options (sites) for connecting the donor vessels.

Exercise wise any exercise is good even if it is sitting in a chair doing arm exercises, bending from the waist and, maybe, arm curls with light weights.

[Grayjay]

Hi,

It's a good job that they're on to it and your Mum is being seen to.

I had a triple bypass in 2000 and lasted until 2009 when I had a heart attack due to my grafts going floppy and failed.

I had four stents fitted in the grafts and that has kept me going until now. Hopefully I'll get a bit more. Unfortunately my heart was damaged due to the M I and due to that I've not been as fit as I was, but I'm stiil here.

Best of luck.

[gemstar82 in reply to Grayjay]

Thank you for reply. She only had the triple bypass December 2017. She has had breathlessness since then and the cardiologist had thought it was medication. Ct angiogram with dye showed something so got to have angiogram through groin they have mentioned possible stenting.

[mrnkar in reply to gemstar82]

My husband had a graft using the mammoth artery to replace his LAD. His first hospital check up was fine but he had to have a stress test to go back to work & they picked up a problem. Turned out the graft had failed. This was after 3 months. He had it re-done 6 months later using one from his arm & he's been fine ever since. That was 9 years ago. So yes they can fail but good that it has been picked up early.

[gemstar82 in reply to mrnkar]

Yes she has had to have two stents fitted. Not made any difference still breathless and tired 😩

[mrnkar in reply to gemstar82]

I hope the hospital or GP are keeping a good eye on her. My husband gets breathless very quickly & his lung function not the best but we are grateful that he is alive as he was very close to death & is only 60. Hopefully things will improve for your mum

[shopman]

My grafts started to fail after 16 years and have since had 3 procedures for stents including stent within a stent. A lot is going to depend on which graft(s) and where they have started to fail. Originally they had a plan with me to do rotablation - tinyurl.com/yaxegrpf - on my original arteries, but that has been called off for now - suspect because of cost.

[gemstar82 in reply to shopman]

My mum only had hers done December 2017. So a big let down for her.