My husband was due to have surgery recently and it was cancelled at the last minute due to his heart medication. He recently had 2 stents in his heart. It has something to do with platelets and has been told he will have to wait 6 months until he can operation (elective surgery on foot) Can you please explain. Regards Judy
Hello, As what I understand by history is that your husband is having a cardiac issue and low platelet count. So let's take this first. Unless and until the cardiac fitness certificate is obtained by the cardiologist no surgery can be performed. Next, we need to keep a gap between the stent surgery and orthopedic procedure. Platelet has a role in stopping the blood overflow. Less number of platelet in the blood can lead to massive danger to the patient by losing more blood and no healing. The situation can be dangerous, so no surgeon would operate until the platelet is in normal values. Now doing operation late is not an issue if it's just a fixation. The limb will be kept immobilized within the cast till the cardiac certificate is obtained and platelet comes to normal values. Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.  Jay In Chat Doctor.