Psychological Issues Post Heart Valve Replacement

A patient undergoing valve replacement surgery may be little anxious about the surgery. In fact valve replacement makes a patient live better and brisker life post surgery.  After surgery in couple of months the person does all routine work and will be very active. I would like to highlight the immediate time period post surgery.  This is the time the person needs to focus on regaining his physical health as well as mental health. 

The person might be given anesthesia while conducting the surgery. After gaining conscious there might be still the residue of anesthetic effect. Sometimes it is called as ICU Psychosis.  The patient might talk irrelevant topics and thought process will be random.  The family members need to understand this situation. This period family members need to follow the diet regimen and medicinal prescriptions suggested by doctors.  

The patient once gets up from sleep will feel that they are in a different place and talk about their childhood friend or incidents. It is like continuation of dream. They may be having weird dream. Even after getting up from sleep they will be floating in their dream and will talk randomly from their dream state. This is called as “De javu” or funny thinking.  Sometimes the patient will enjoy this state and will laugh themselves. The memory will wander from what they saw, their belief, imagination and combination of present situation.  Their short term memory will be confused.   As days pass it will occur fewer and fewer. Slowly it will fade away from their memory and will be normal.

Counseling should to be provided to family members regarding this state of mind.  Recovering to the normal thinking process of the patient depends from person to person. Some people take only few days and for some it might vary up to a month also. During this period family members should not lose their patience and need not give logical reason to the patient. Just give the patient emotional support by being with them and providing a favorable environment.

This article is written with the aim of giving awareness to the people from psychological perspective. Medical practitioners may be the right people to give more information about the cause or time period.

Aantharya