After a heart transplant, a slow and accurate recovery is followed, and it is important to take daily immunosuppressive medicines, recommended by your doctor, to prevent rejection of the transplanted heart. However, it is also important to maintain a balanced diet by only eating well-cooked foods, mainly cooked, to avoid infections that can for the life of the patient at risk.
Usually, after surgery, the patient is admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), on average, for 7 days, and is then transferred to the inpatient service, where he remains for another 2 weeks. 3 to 4 weeks later.
After discharge, the patient should continue medical advice, so that he can gradually gain quality of life and lead a normal life, being able to work, exercise or go to the beach, for example. ;
Recovery after heart transplant
After surgery, the patient will remain for a few hours in the recovery and only then will be transferred to the ICU, where it should remain, on average, 7 days, to be constantly evaluated and to prevent complications.
During ICU admission, the patient may be connected to several tubes to ensure their well-being, being able to remain with a bladder catheter, drains to the chest, catheters in the arms and probe in the nose to feed, and it is normal to feel muscle weakness and difficulty breathing due to prolonged inactivity before surgery.
In some cases, soon after surgery, the patient may need to stay in a room alone, isolated from other patients and sometimes without receiving visits, because their immune system is weak and can more easily contract any disease, especially infection, putting the patient's life at risk.
In this way, the patient and anyone who contacts this may need to put on mask, cloak and gloves whenever he enters his room. Only after being stable is he transferred to the inpatient service, where he stays for about 2 weeks and is progressively recovering.
How is recovery at home after surgery
In most cases, the return home takes about 3 to 4 weeks after surgery, but varies with the results of the blood tests, electrocardiogram, echogram and chest X-ray, which are done several times during hospitalization.
In order to maintain patient follow-up after discharge from the hospital, consultations are scheduled at the cardiologist as needed.
The life of the transplanted patient undergoes some changes and must:
1. Taking Immunosuppressive Remedies
After heart transplant surgery, the patient needs to take immunosuppressive drugs daily, which are medicines that help prevent rejection of the transplanted organ, such as Cyclosporine or Azathioprine, and which should be used throughout life. However, usually, medicine doses are decreasing, by medical indication, with recovery, being necessary to do blood tests first to tailor the treatment to the needs.
In addition, in the first month the doctor may indicate the use of:
- Antibiotics, to avoid the risk of infection, such as Cefamandol or Vancomycin;
- Analgesics, to decrease pain, such as Ceterolac;
- Diuretics such as Furosemide to maintain at least 100 ml of urine per hour, preventing swelling and cardiac malfunction;
- Corticosteroids, to prevent inflammatory reaction, such as Cortisone;
- Anticoagulants, such as Calciparin, to prevent the formation of thrombi, which may arise due to immobility;
- Antacids, to prevent digestive bleeding, such as Omeprazole.
In addition, you should not take any other medicine without medical advice, as it may interact and lead to rejection of the transplanted organ.
2. Do regular physical activity
After cardiac transplantation, the patient usually has difficulty performing physical activity due to the complexity of the surgery, the time of hospitalization and the use of immunosuppressants, however, this should be started in the hospital, after the patient is stable and no longer take medication by the vein.
For faster recovery, aerobic exercise, such as walking for 40 to 60 minutes, 4-5 times a week, at a slow rate of 80 meters per minute, should be performed so that recovery is faster and the transplanted patient is able to return day-to-day activities.
In addition, you should do anaerobic exercises, such as stretching, to increase joint mobility, strengthen muscles, improve bone density, and reduce heart rate.
3. Only eat cooked food
After transplantation, the patient should eat a balanced diet, but should:
- Eliminate all raw foods from the diet, such as salads, fruits and juices and poorly cooked;
- Eliminate consumption of pasteurized foods, such as cheese, yogurt and canned food;
- Consume only well-cooked foods, mostly cooked, such as cooked apple, soup, boiled or pasteurized egg;
- Drink only mineral water.
The patient's diet should be a lifelong diet that avoids contact with microorganisms to avoid having infections and when preparing food should wash hands, food and cooking utensils well to avoid contamination. Find out what to eat at: Diet for Low Immunity.
4. Maintaining hygiene
To avoid complications, it is important to keep the environment always clean, by:
- Wash your teeth daily by washing your teeth at least 3 times a day;
- Have the house clean, ventilated, free of moisture and insects.
- Avoid contact with people who are sick, with flu, for example;
- Do not go to polluted, air-conditioned, cold or very hot environments.
For recovery to run successfully it is necessary to protect the patient from situations that may attack the immune system if it is weak.
Complications of surgery
Heart transplantation is a very complex and delicate surgery and, therefore, the risks of this heart surgery are always present. Some of the complications include infection or rejection due to weakening of the immune system or even coronary disease, heart failure, renal malfunction or seizures, for example.
During recovery, and especially after discharge, it is important to observe signs that may indicate signs of complications, such as fever, difficulty breathing, swelling of the legs or vomiting, and if initiate appropriate treatment.
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