Women's lived experiences of recovery after cardiac surgery

Introduction: Over 700,000 patients undergo cardiac surgery annually in the US; approximately 75% men and 25% women. Health-related quality of life (HRQL) has become a common outcome. Efforts to measure HRQL in the cardiac surgery population have resulted in a number of instruments, ranging from conceptually broad indices of well-being to disease-specific instruments designed to detect small but clinically relevant changes. However, little research has been published on understanding the lived experiences of these patients, especially those of women recovering from heart surgery.

Methods: Qualitative methodology was used to understand the lived experiences of women recovering from heart surgery. IRB approval was obtained. All women who had filled out a HRQL survey (SF-12) prior to surgery were mailed an invitation to participate in scheduled focus groups. The question: “Tell us about your recovery from surgery” was used to guide the focus group discussion. The focus groups were audio-taped and transcripts were transcribed verbatim and imported into NVivo 8, a qualitative data analysis software system specifically developed for textual data. Thematic analysis was conducted independently by two researchers and themes were compared and discussed until a consensus was achieved.

Results: Seventeen women participated; average age was 68.2 years. The majority (64.7%) had coronary artery bypass surgery. Major themes were: recovery from surgery took between 3-12 months and many had no idea they had heart disease. Many expressed now having to learn to live with heart disease and are subsequently changing their lifestyles to include “trying to eat better and exercise”. They were surprised that they had relatively no pain after surgery. They also expressed that mentally it has been harder to recover as they feel more “vulnerable” but also at the same time “grateful, stronger and more powerful”. Social support from friends, doctors and family were important in the first few weeks after surgery; after the first few weeks they were “ready to move on” and did not need as much support and “wanted to be able to do things by themselves”.

Conclusions: Recovery from cardiac surgery varies for each patient; however, the majority of women expressed full recovery by 12 months after surgery. All women spoke about now having to learn to live with heart disease and changing their lifestyle to meet the heart healthy recommendations of eating healthier and exercising. Policy focused on early detection of heart disease in women is imperative for women and health-care providers.