I am trying to give my girlfriend a little hope, as her father just had a heart attack, and is going through his second set of stents.My father also had a heart attack, but went through open heart surgery (triple bypass).l was under the impression that if you need open heart surgery, it is much more serious.If you could give me a link to where you got your information, it would be most appreciated.

Of course open heart surgery is more serious,my dad passed from complications of that last year.

Yeah l believe open heart is more serious. l had a roommate have this at 28! This after 2 attempts at stent - his was congenital l think and maybe even part lifestyle. He changed his lifestyle and lost weight - of course the surgery will make him lose weight a bit too.

With a stent, it is installed via a small balloon placed in the artery to widen it.

With open heart surgery, they have to physically stop the heart by opening the chest cavity & filling it with ice after hooking the patient up to a heart & lung machine.

Open Heart Surgery is much more risky due to the fact that the Heart & Lung machine could malfunction, the blood could become tainted (With plastic residue, cleaning chemicals, a leak in the machine, etc etc etc), & the heart has to be physically stopped & necessitated.

Stents allow the heart to continually beat (Although it may be slowed by drugs), without the assistance of a heart & lung machine, & the heart is not stopped.

Open heart surgery is a major procedure.

A second set of stents compared to an open heart surgery is not that bad. I've come across patients who were admitted for a 7th (seventh) set of stents & lived.

l am sorry l cannot be more helpful, but Google is not showing up anything that directly compares the ''seriousness'' of stents vs a triple bypass.

My fiance consoles me by informing me about all kinds of things, depending on what it is l need to be consoled about.

In ur case, u can tell ur girlfriend that, in this day & age, doctors can remove brain tumors & even perform heart transplants. To add to that, her father will have a very awesome anesthesiologist by his side (and trust me, if u r a VERY sick person, the first kind of doctor u would want by ur side is an anesthesiologist because anesthesiologists r critical care specialists & they specialize in keeping patients alive).

Good luck!

To be honest, either procedure is complicated, but open heart takes much more time to recover.The difference between needing the surgery & needing the stent is where the blockage is & how severe it is. l am an open heart recovery nurse. l take care of both types of patients. Patients with stents usually have a two to three day stay in the hospital versus the open heart patient who will generally stay 5 days or so. Surgery involves cracking open the sternum & stopping the heart by packing the chest full of ice. This way the surgeon can work on the vessels that need to be fixed without the heart beating. Stents r placed while the patient is awake & the heart is beating. Big difference. So, to answer ur question... l think that definitely the surgery is more risky. There is a much greater chance of infection & complication with surgery versus the stents.
Good luck & God bless.

Either is risky, but l would say that between the two, l would prefer stents rather than open heart surgery any day if l had to choose between the two. My husband had to have his heart removed when he had a heart transplant & we were warned it was the worst type of surgery there is, as there is no guarantee that they could get the new heart to work right, if at all. That was the worst 6 hrs of my life waiting outside the theatres, but luckily he was fine & the doctors worked their magic & made my husband fit again, it is amazing to see the change in him, from being 27 & bed bound & couldnt even hold his baby daughter without getting breathless, to a 30 yr old man who can take his kids in the park & run round playing football with them!
It was a risky operation, but one worth every risk & l am glad he decided to go ahead & beat the illness!
Good luck to u & l hope that everything works out well! Doctors now can do many things & dont ever lose hope, u need to believe & be strong for each other. x

As others have noted, open heart surgery is a much more serious procedure than angioplasty (stents). However, l am hot sure if that is what u r asking. If u r asking if open heart surgery means the disease is more serious, the answer is ''sometimes, but not always.''

Sometimes, when the heart disease is more serious, angioplasty is not a viable alternative.

However, there for some people either angioplasty or open heart surgery is appropriate. The decision may not be based on the severity of the disease.

There was a recent news release comparing angioplasty & open heart surgery. You can read the AP summary of the study at

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i-cGd49k2fuTonngZZ9KCow022qgD92TTMF80