Problems with saphenous vein harvesting site

[Spaghettinana]

I had coronary artery bypass and aortic valve replacement by open heart surgery. My biggest problem is how uncomfortable my left leg is where they went in to get the vein. The area is tight and feels hard. It’s only been three weeks but I am wondering if my leg will get back to normal. It hurts at the stitches site when I walk or bend my knee. I still have significant bruising on my leg. Has anyone had problems like this, if so how did you deal with it?

[Max1019]

I had ongoing problems with my left leg, and unfortunately still do (op 10/19). if you’re concerned have you rang the BHF team, they were very helpful in supporting me with some of my initial concerns. We’re all different so best to get the advice from the best people possible. Hope it does well.

[Thesnowman51]

Don’t worry about it yet, it’s still very early days. The legs are often the longest to heal and we all heal at different stages. The nerve pathways have been seriously disrupted and will take many weeks to improve. In my case I would say at least 12 weeks before I felt only minor/occasional discomfort. Search this forum on the subject and you will find it is a common concern but not an ongoing problem

[Snowflake01]

Hi, 3 weeks is still very early, I definitely still had bruising and swelling etc at this point. For me, it started to improve more from 4 weeks. It still feels stiff now around the ankle and sensitive to touch at 9 weeks post CABG, though no problems or pains when walking 3+ miles (overall my recovery is going very well and everyone recovers at different paces!). It just takes time to heal.

At the stitches site, my stitches were 3 x small scars of about 1/2 inch and didn't cause any problems. Some people have had much longer scars along the length of the leg that I imagine could be more problematic. I think the concern here would be if the scar became infected (e.g. pus, sore, inflamed)?

[CyclingTime]

It will get back to normal three weeks is no time at all 😁

[cabgpatch]

My leg wound is mostly healed 9 weeks after the op, it's very common for the leg wound to take longer than the chest wound, so I wouldn't worry just yet.

I am still getting various aches and pains in my leg and have found that using an elevator cushion bought from Amazon has helped considerably when I am sitting. Weirdly, I don't get much discomfort now when I am walking, but the wound does get angry-looking when I stand upright and gravity comes into play.

There is probably some nerve damage as well as what is a big wound with attendant muscle damage, it all takes time unfortunately.

[survivorsguilt]

I'm really sorry but I can't help. I had aorta and aortic valve replacement but no vein work.

[Clairealou]

hi there. My leg took ages to heal, long after my chest had. In the end, a nurse at my GP practice thought I might be anaemic (which often happens after surgery), gave me some iron tablets, and it healed it no time. 3 weeks isn’t long. Mine probably took 4-5 months.

[Survivor1952]

I had bruising and a big, hard, lump just below my knee for some weeks after the vein was harvested. I’m now at 14 months and the scar is all but invisible and I have no issues at all. The lump slowly cleared as has the ‘shadow’ where the bruise was. My scar is from 4” below my knee cap to 4” below my groin.

I did have a dissolvable stitch work its way out of the wound in the first fortnight, it was troubling me, catching on my trousers, trying to get the GP practice to deal with it was a nightmare.

[davebal67]

My leg was really swollen and the big haemotoma discharged black blood around 4 weeks. I used Aveeno skin relief and needed to wear gents leggings when wearing trousers.

1 year on and everything has calmed down some pain at the ankle skar but in general its healed up very well. Initially out walking was painful due to the skin stretching due to thd swelling.

Swollen 2 weeks after surgery.