Where You Left Your Heart

Pacemaker: This device can be implanted during minor surgery to help the right and left ventricle contract normally. Heart repair or transplant surgeries for left-sided heart failure: Congenital heart defect repair surgery: Repairing a heart defect can improve blood flow.

Coronary artery bypass graft CABG : This surgery creates a bypass around your narrowed coronary arteries by grafting arteries or veins taken from other parts of your body, which improves blood flow, stops chest pain and prevents a heart attack.

Heart reconstruction surgery: Electric signals travel through a healthy heart, shaped like a football, causing it to contract. But heart damage enlarges and stretches the heart to be shaped more like a basketball, affecting electrical signals that make the heart pump less efficiently. Reconstructing the shape of the heart can improve its electrical signaling and functioning.

Types of reconstruction include: Artificial heart valve surgery: Repair or replacement of a valve can reduce an enlarged heart and increase heart function. The Dor procedure: Stitching a widened artery an aneurysm of scarred tissue, caused by a previous heart attack, can shrink the dead area of the heart and help it regain a more shape.

The Acorn procedure: A mesh-like sock placed over the heart is stitched into place to prevent the heart from enlarging. Heart transplant surgery: This surgery is done when all other left-sided heart failure treatments have failed. The damaged heart is surgically removed and replaced with a healthy heart from a deceased donor.

Prognosis The prognosis for left-sided heart failure varies, depending on the cause of the condition and severity of the symptoms. Some will improve with treatment and lifestyle changes. For others, left-sided heart failure can be life-threatening. Complications Left-sided heart failure complications can include: Angina: Chest, jaw, neck discomfort or pressure is caused by the lack of blood flowing to the heart.

Atrial fibrillation: This irregular heart rhythm can increase the risk of stroke and blood clots. Cardiac cachexia: This unintentional weight loss of at least 7. Heart valve issues: Increased pressure on the heart can disrupt blood from flowing in the right direction throughout the heart.

Heart attack: The heart muscle is damaged permanently by the lack of blood flow to the heart for an extended period of time. Impaired kidney function: Decreased kidney function is common in patients with left-sided heart failure. If the kidneys receive less blood, kidney failure can occur, requiring dialysis treatment.

Liver damage: Fluid backing up from the heart puts pressure on the liver that can cause scarring, which makes it harder for the liver to function properly.

Right-sided heart failure: As a result of left-sided heart failure, blood flows back through the lungs, weakening the right side of the heart. This can cause fluid to build up in the lungs and cause swelling in the legs and ankles, and lead to GI and liver damage.

The right side of your heart receives blood from the body and pumps it to the lungs. The left side of the heart does the exact opposite: It receives blood from the lungs and pumps it out to the body. How the Heart Beats How does the heart beat? Before each beat, your heart fills with blood. Then its muscle contracts to squirt the blood along.

When the heart contracts, it squeezes — try squeezing your hand into a fist. That's sort of like what your heart does so it can squirt out the blood. Your heart does this all day and all night, all the time. The heart is one hard worker! Page 1 Parts of the Heart The heart is made up of four different blood-filled areas, and each of these areas is called a chamber.

There are two chambers on each side of the heart. One chamber is on the top and one chamber is on the bottom. The two chambers on top are called the atria say: AY-tree-uh.

If you're talking only about one, call it an atrium. The atria are the chambers that fill with the blood returning to the heart from the body and lungs. The heart has a left atrium and a right atrium. The two chambers on the bottom are called the ventricles say: VEN-trih-kulz. The heart has a left ventricle and a right ventricle.

Their job is to squirt out the blood to the body and lungs. Running down the middle of the heart is a thick wall of muscle called the septum say: SEP-tum. The septum's job is to separate the left side and the right side of the heart. The atria and ventricles work as a team — the atria fill with blood, then dump it into the ventricles. The ventricles then squeeze, pumping blood out of the heart.

While the ventricles are squeezing, the atria refill and get ready for the next contraction. So when the blood gets pumped, how does it know which way to go? Well, your blood relies on four special valves inside the heart. A valve lets something in and keeps it there by closing — think of walking through a door. The door shuts behind you and keeps you from going backward.

They let blood flow from the atria to the ventricles. The other two are called the aortic say: ay-OR-tik valve and pulmonary say: PUL-muh-ner-ee valve, and they're in charge of controlling the flow as the blood leaves the heart. These valves all work to keep the blood flowing forward. They open up to let the blood move ahead, then they close quickly to keep the blood from flowing backward.

Page 2 How Blood Circulates You probably guessed that the blood just doesn't slosh around your body once it leaves the heart. Vincent : "Hmm? This is when you're supposed to say the vampires are gonna steer clear of both.

First of all, reading that was very rude, and second. And guys this is what I'm always talking about Marcel means Rebekah, Rebekah means Kol and Elijah, and I don't even want to think about Klaus right now, cause apparently he has lost his mind. Buzzkill if it means reminding everybody here that the magic that those four carry inside of them, if we just put two of them in the same place, it is a ticking bomb. Marcel is in New York, Elijah is.