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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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What Causes Drainage From The Lungs After Aortic Valve Replacement?

I am afraid my brother in law has amyloid protein disease of the heart. He had open heart surgery on February 14 and just got home yesterday. He weighs 148 and was 190 in December. He had his aorta valve replaced, another valve repaired from a leak and the doctor said his heart was stretched and all the valves and ventricles were also and he said the walls were harder than normal. He is very weak, has swelling in his legs, ankles, feet, thighs, stomach. He has had one and sometimes 2 lungs tapped 6 times and then they finally put in drains that they are draining one every day now and the other every other day. He is getting 6 mile-liters from one and about 1 in the other. What do you think?
posted on Wed, 12 Apr 2017
Twitter Thu, 10 Aug 2017 Answered on
Twitter Fri, 11 Aug 2017 Last reviewed on
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It seems as if his heart condition lasted for a long period of time before getting the surgery. When the heart valves malfunction for a long time period, it places allot of stress on the ventricles of the heart (the pumping chambers). This "stress" makes the ventricles more "stiff" as a compensation. The medical term for the is diastolic dysfunction. It means the heart muscle cannot relax and has a hard time dealing with volume. This dysfunction makes it so, that sometimes even after replacing/ repairing a heart valve the patient still shows symptoms of heart failure. Amyloid protein disease is another cause of diastolic dysfunction. Your brother should find a cardiologist specialist who deals with diastolic dysfunction in order to best set his medications.
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What Causes Drainage From The Lungs After Aortic Valve Replacement?

It seems as if his heart condition lasted for a long period of time before getting the surgery. When the heart valves malfunction for a long time period, it places allot of stress on the ventricles of the heart (the pumping chambers). This stress makes the ventricles more stiff as a compensation. The medical term for the is diastolic dysfunction. It means the heart muscle cannot relax and has a hard time dealing with volume. This dysfunction makes it so, that sometimes even after replacing/ repairing a heart valve the patient still shows symptoms of heart failure. Amyloid protein disease is another cause of diastolic dysfunction. Your brother should find a cardiologist specialist who deals with diastolic dysfunction in order to best set his medications.