Dr. Andrei Dermengiu

Anesthesiologist at European Cardiomyopathy Center

Q&A: What are the particular needs for the HOCM patient, related with the surgical management and the intensive care, before, after and during the intervention?

Cardiac surgery for correcting HOCM always requires general anesthesia and at least two days stay in the intensive care unit (ICU). The experience begins with the preoperative anesthesia visit. You will meet your anesthesiologist and you will discuss every aspect of your anesthesia and ICU recovery. Please write down any questions or wishes, as we are happy to work together to make your experience safe and as comfortable as possible. After signing your informed consent, you will be administered a light sedative (to improve your anxiety) and will be transferred to the operating room. General anesthetics will be administered in the IV lines and you will not feel or remember anything from this point to the time you comfortably wake up in the ICU.

The HOCM patient requires special care with regard to hemodynamics (heart rhythm, blood pressure and heart filling) and complex physiological shifts that are managed by an expert anesthesiologist. For this to be carried out, it requires intravascular catheters to be inserted as you are asleep. After surgery, there is a standard two day stay in the ICU, and then you will be transferred back to your room on the cardiac surgery ward. Your experienced HOCM team, the anesthesiologist and ICU physician react swiftly to the fast-changing conditions that present before, during and after surgery so the patient may have a big improvement in life quality and live a normal life after surgical treatment.