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What Causes Chest Pain With Fever After Open-heart Suregery?
My wife had open-heart surgery 3.5 weeks ago to replace her aortic valve. Since then the recovery has come along extremely well. Heart rate and activity are doing well and she has been in less pain. Perhaps 4-5 days ago, she was running a slightly elevated temperature for a few days and the surgeon s PA had blood work done - which came back fine with no elevated white blood cell count. However, this morning she awoke with a new pain in her chest. It appears to be located on the left side, slightly below and to the side of the breast - kind of in a rib cage area. It isn t severe, but it is definitely there and it appears to be worse when she breathes deeply at all. She has had a slightly elevated temperature again tody, between 99.2 and probably 99.9 (although our temperature gauge tends to return considerable variance between ears and between monitoring). How concerned, if at all, should we be? Should we be monitoring anything else in particular?
Wed, 8 Jan 2020
Hello,
It is good to know that your wife recovered well & her blood reports are fine. Post operative fever after cardiac surgery is quite common. Presently she is having slightly elevated temperature. Most fevers are benign & self limiting. It is commonly due to inflammation caused by surgical trauma (resulting in release of cytokines). Cytokines regulate immunity & inflammation. Post-operative fever or chest pain can occur due to infection (chest wall infection, respiratory infection, etc) complicating surgery, if fever persists you can get a follow up clinical examination done. She may require to go through a few diagnostic tests. You can watch & note the heart rate, pulse, blood pressure if possible. If discomfort is much, get her examined & treated at the earliest.
Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.
Regards,
Dr. Nupur K, General & Family Physician
It is good to know that your wife recovered well & her blood reports are fine. Post operative fever after cardiac surgery is quite common. Presently she is having slightly elevated temperature. Most fevers are benign & self limiting. It is commonly due to inflammation caused by surgical trauma (resulting in release of cytokines). Cytokines regulate immunity & inflammation. Post-operative fever or chest pain can occur due to infection (chest wall infection, respiratory infection, etc) complicating surgery, if fever persists you can get a follow up clinical examination done. She may require to go through a few diagnostic tests. You can watch & note the heart rate, pulse, blood pressure if possible. If discomfort is much, get her examined & treated at the earliest.
Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.
Regards,
Dr. Nupur K, General & Family Physician
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