Who needs heart surgery?

Heart surgery is used to treat people who have severe heart diseases and conditions. If other treatments, such as lifestyle changes, medicines, and medical procedures, haven't worked or can't be used, heart surgery may be an option.

Heart surgery is used to treat heart failure and coronary artery disease. It's also used to fix heart valves that don't work right, to regulate heart rhythms, and to replace a damaged heart with a healthy one.

This answer from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute has been reviewed and/or edited by Dr. William D. Knopf.