Mended Hearts Open Forum

It has been determined that I have a least two broken wire sutures.

I'm very worried.  I have been experiencing pain and weird "clunking" in my chest for many many months (my surgery was about 11 months ago).

I had chocked it up to a longer than normal recovery.

Has anyone had this problem -- and was it fixed?  It sounds like they may have to open me up again to fix the problem.  I'm scared as hell...

I'm getting a CT tomorrow or Friday.

Tony.

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Anthony Smith
Lake Elsinore CA
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I assume the wire sutures you refer to are the bands used to hold the sternum together. I think they used coat hangers to tie mine together, they protruded so far I used them as a hat rack.

You should have some answers after the cat scan, however that popping sound and sensation is somewhat common and is probably the sternum moving about. It's been a long time but as I recall mine was most pronounced at around a year. It seemed to take forever for that to heal and the wires dissolve.

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Warren
TucsonAZ
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Hey Tony,

That never happened to me, but here's a thought you might want to consider and ask your doctor:  If your sternum is healed after 11 months, as you would expect, maybe they just need to cut through a small section of the skin and fascia to remove the loose pieces of wire without having to actually do a new sternotomy.  I've read that removal of broken wires is "safe, simple and effective."

What I'm saying is this might not be as big a deal as you're fearing and you likely will feel much better after the wires are removed.

Keep us posted and good luck.

Ira

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Ira Reid
Hoboken NJ
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