Work at the Department
fter recovery in the intensive care unit, patients who underwent cardiac surgery are transferred to the semi-intensive care unit (Cardiac Surgery 1). The team includes cardiologists who specialize in postoperative monitoring and therapy for patients in early postoperative period, as well as nurses who are in charge of monitoring and recognizing changes in the patient’s condition. In the patient rooms, beds are equipped with the latest devices for hemodynamic monitoring (monitoring all vital functions). Hemodynamic parameters are monitored, ECG monitoring and laboratory analyzes are performed on a daily basis. Echocardiographic follow-up imaging is performed according to the protocol, together with heart and lungs X-ray imaging. Cardiac surgeons also perform surgical wound dressing and thoracic drain removal with the follow-up X-ray imaging of the chest. If required, additional diagnostic procedures are performed, and experts in different fields are consulted with. In cooperation with physiatrists and physiotherapists, patients undergo early postoperative rehabilitation with the aim of enabling patients to revert to their preoperative functional level. A protocol for reducing postoperative pain is implemented, thus facilitating patient activation and improving the quality of postoperative recovery. Special attention is paid to providing detailed information to family members about the course of postoperative recovery on a daily basis.
List of procedures
- Standard invasive and non-invasive hemodynamic monitoring: enables continuous monitoring of vital functions (blood pressure, ECG, CVC, oxygen saturation, number of respirations).
- Transthoracic echocardiographic imaging: ultrasound examination of the heart, its structures, heart muscle strength, follow-up examination after valvular surgery.
- X-ray imaging of the heart and lungs
- Thoracic drain removal/placement
- Surgical wound dressing
- Pleural puncture: an intervention which involves minimally invasive entrance into the pleural space to evacuate fluid.
- Transesophageal echocardiographic imaging: A special type of examination using a flexible probe, which ensures better view of individual cardiac structures.
- 24-hour Holter ECG: continuous monitoring of electrical activity of the heart over the period of one day via digital ECG recording
- 24h out-of-office blood pressure Holter monitoring: continuous monitoring of blood pressure values and dynamics over the period of one day
Instructions for patients
General information:
Working hours:
Required documentation:
Upon admission and follow-up examinations, it is necessary to bring all available documentation so that medical doctors could have an insight into the patient’s case history.
Outpatient unit
Medical doctors working at the Cardiac Surgery Department 1 participate in the work of the cardiac surgery outpatient unit, where patients are referred to from primary health care centers as well as from other secondary and tertiary health care institutions. After being examined by cardiologists, these patients are referred to for possible further diagnostic cardiac examinations. The findings obtained are then presented to the cardiac surgery medical advisory board for the purpose of making a decision on further course of treatment. Furthermore, medical doctors of the Cardiac Surgery Department 1 perform regular and extraordinary postoperative follow-up examinations of patient who were operated on at the Clinic for Cardiac Surgery. The first examinations at the cardiac surgery outpatient unit are scheduled via the IHIS system.
The date and time of the follow-up examination after cardiac surgery is scheduled upon the patient’s discharge and is entered in the discharge note.
Contact details
Telephone:
011/3601-709; 011/3601-710
Fax:
E-mail:
