[Verse 1] Scalpel's closed but the story keeps spinning, Discharge echo first — that's the opening inning, One month later, we circle back and we look, Six months deep, writing another page in the book, Then annual visits, like a candle you can't dodge, Soundwaves bouncing off the freshly stitched lodge, That's the conduit, sitting pretty, newly placed, But scar tissue's patient, so we keep the pace. Cardiac MRI, six to twelve months the window, Gadolinium tells what the echo can't show, Volumes and function measured in millimeters cubed, Confirming the remodel ain't just a passing mood. [Chorus] Discharge, a month, six months, then every year, Echo keeps the rhythm, keeps the picture clear, MRI confirms what the ventricle's done, Thirty percent smaller once the new valve has won, One-sixty, eighty — numbers hold the key, Decide if the heart bounces back or stays in debt to history. [Verse 2] Physiology lesson — listen to the science, RV stretched for years under volume's defiance, Leaky valve feeding pressure it don't need, Chamber ballooning out on that backward-flowing feed, Replace the valve, the overload's retrenched, Muscle fiber finally given room, unclenched, Thirty percent average drop, that's the going rate, But full normalization hinges on the gate — RVEDVi under one-sixty per meter squared, RVESVi under eighty, or the shrinkage won't be fair, Wait too long to operate, miss the timing frame, Ejection fraction stays stubborn — roughly the same. [Chorus] Discharge, a month, six months, then every year, Echo keeps the rhythm, keeps the picture clear, MRI confirms what the ventricle's done, Thirty percent smaller once the new valve has won, One-sixty, eighty — numbers hold the key, Decide if the heart bounces back or stays in debt to history. [Verse 3] Now the electric story, QRS duration, Widened for years from right-sided strain's occupation, Post-op it plateaus, don't bank on retreat, Shortening's rare, the conduction stays bittersweet, Ventricular tachycardia lurking quiescent, Dormant like a seed underground, patient, not absent, Scar depth, pressure load, duration of the stretch, ICD criteria get reassessed and refetched, Non-sustained runs, syncope, dysfunction severe, Review the device threshold, every single year. [Bridge] Watch the conduit — restenosis creeping in, Watch the valve — regurgitation under the skin, Watch the branches — peripheral pulmonary stenosis, Watch the leaflets — thrombosis in slow genesis, Four shadows stalking every graft we install, Echo and MRI catch them before the fall. [Chorus] Discharge, a month, six months, then every year, Echo keeps the rhythm, keeps the picture clear, MRI confirms what the ventricle's done, Thirty percent smaller once the new valve has won, One-sixty, eighty — numbers hold the key, Decide if the heart bounces back or stays in debt to history.
← Activity, Sternum and Rehabilitation | Lifetime Management and Living With a Conduit →