Heart surgery is a very serious thing and that is what makes it so scary for a lot of people. This type of surgery usually happens as a last resort when diet and exercising are just not improving the heart muscle. The basic reason for heart surgery is to get more of a supply of blood flowing in and out of the heart.

To determine any blockages, a arteriography is done using a cardiac catheterization. Your doctor guides a thin plastic tube (called a catheter) through an artery in the arm or leg and leads it into the coronary arteries. Once this is done, the doctor injects a liquid dye through the catheter. The dye is visible only in X-rays which record the course of the dye as it flows through the arteries. By mapping the dye's flow, the doctor identifies blocked areas. Once this is done, it will be determined the best course of action for your personal situation.

Another test to see if heart surgery is necessary, a balloon type instrument may be used. It is called an angioplasty or balloon angioplasty. The doctor inserts and guides a catheter toward the blocked area of the artery. Then a second catheter with a small balloon on the tip is passed through the first catheter. Once the balloon tip reaches the blocked area, the balloon is inflated.

There are many situations in which heart surgery is preformed. A coronary artery bypass graft surgery in which a doctor will take a healthy blood vessel from one part of the body - usually a leg, and detour it around the blocked artery. They graft it on both above and below the blockage. Then blood flow resumes to the heart. A double bypass is two grafts and a triple bypass is three.

The ultimate heart surgery is a complete heart transplant. The diseased heart is removed and the healthy donor heart is then attached. This is a complicated surgery because so many blood vessels have to be unattached and then reattached. This type of heart surgery is only done on people that have no other recourse. After this type of surgery, the heart patient will need to take heart medications, anti-rejection medicines, and blood thinners for the rest of their lives to ensure their new heart stays healthy and the body doesn't reject it.

There have been many medical breakthroughs, but the artificial heart is by far the best. This is used to keep the patient alive until a donor heart is found. Every patient, no matter which kind of surgery the patient faces, experiences feelings of uncertainty and fear. The prospect of open heart surgery can be frightening and upsettling, but armed with good information - the procedure many not seem as scary.