Cardiac Surgery
The cardiac surgery manager will send you a letter with specific instructions regarding your surgery and admission to Lenox Hill Hospital. If you have additional questions, you may call the cardiac surgery manager at (212) 434-6034.
Some patients are admitted to the hospital on the day of their surgery. This is called same-day surgery and allows you to spend the night before surgery at home with your family. In this case, preoperative tests, medical history, and a physical will be performed prior to your admission in the Cardiac Surgery office at the hospital. You and your family can meet with a member of the nursing staff to answer your questions about what to expect. At that time you will receive specific instructions for your admission.
If you are to be admitted the day prior to your surgery, you and your family should report to the Canno Admission Center, located at 100 East 77th Street, to receive the appropriate preoperative tests. When these tests have been completed, you will be accompanied to your hospital room on one of the Cardiac Surgery floors, where a member of the cardiac care team will take your medical history and perform a physical exam. The nursing staff will help prepare you for surgery, as well as answer any questions you and your family may have about the procedure.
The evening before your surgery, you will meet with various members of the cardiac surgery team. You will be encouraged to walk freely around the unit, wearing a portable cardiac monitor called a telemetry box, which monitors your heart rhythm at the central nursing station, before and after surgery. You can eat and drink until midnight. However, you will be required to fast from that point until after your surgery.
Before you go to sleep, you will be asked to take the first of two showers using an antiseptic sponge to cleanse your skin. Following your shower, please request a sleeping pill if you feel you will need one.
