HELP... Cardiac & Pulmonary clearance

[Karlnjax 163]

I'm having gastric bypass surgery and I thought I was pretty much all done with all the clearances I needed. However since they advised changing me from doing the gastric sleeve to bypass they are requiring a cardiac & pulmonary clearance. I currently have sleep apnea so I am wondering is pulmonary clearance not require another sleep study? Just kind of like a check to make sure your safe for surgery? Then my second question was for cardiac clearance will they be doing an EKG or stress test? Or again is it just something like listening to my heart and taking my blood pressure.

Thanks for any replies or feedback on this!

[SuzeMuze 338]

I can only speak from my own experience, but I sat in the waiting room for pulmonary clearance longer than the test actually took. All I had to do was breathe into a machine a few times, and done. The cardiac clearance depends on what they find. It may start with a simple EKG, and if everything looks great, you're clear. If it's inconclusive, you may be asked to take a stress test. If the stress test images are ok, you're clear. If not, you may be (like me) on your way to a hospital for a heart catheterization. Once again, if THAT comes back clear (as it did for me....whole lot of stressing out for nothing in the end- not that I'm really complaining) then you're good. If not... a stent is a possible solution, which from what I understand could delay your surgery.

[hellohealthy 32]

I needed a pulmonary clearance which consisted of breathing into a spirometer and getting a chest x Ray. I assume I had no issues because I was cleared for surgery.

[recordsmom 52]

I didn't have to have the pulmonary clearance, but I did have to have the cardiac clearance. Like SuzeMuze, I had an ekg, then had a stress echocardiogram. The cardiologist didn't like the way the echocardiogram looked, so he sent me for a heart catheterization. That showed that everything was completely normal and he finally cleared me for surgery.

Try not to stress too much over the pre-op testing. It seems like a lot, but it's reassuring to know they've checked all that out before surgery.

[sparksrn 65]

I had to have both of those also and I am on a CPAP also. My doc said it was for my safety and because the insurance wanted to make sure that I was a good candidate for the surgery. In other words the insurance company didn't want to pay for WLS and then me die of some pulmonary or heart condition on the table! For the cardiac test they hooked me up to electrodes and put a mask on my face (very similar to my CPAP) and had me pedal on a stationary bike for 8 minutes, the only really difficult part was the last eight minutes. Apparently the bike adjust to get you to the heart rate they want you at within the 8 minutes and for the amount of time they want you at that heart rate. The pulmonary function test was just a bunch of blowing in tubes. None of it was difficult and as long as you aren't out of breath all the time already you'll be fine.

[Ms popo 0]

Just did my cardiac test it's very easy they just do EKG that's it takes two min

[karenann1708 2]

I was 1 week away from GBsurgery...had pre-op EKG which showed A Fib.Needless to say my GBwas postponed. Had Cardiolite stress test and was cleared for surgery by Cardiologist. Now I'm waiting again for a surgery date. Hopefully mid July!