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disease information

Heart Attacks

Treatment

A heart attack is treated as an emergency because of how serious the pain is and the risk to your life if your heart stops beating altogether (cardiac arrest).

Immediately after your heart attack, you will be given a mixture of oxygen and nitrous oxide through a face mask to help the pain, together with medicines to help thin your blood.

When you are in hospital, you may be given:

  • medicines to help prevent another heart attack (aspirin, anticoagulants, ACE inhibitors, beta-blockers or anti-arrhythmic drugs);
  • medicines to help relieve breathlessness and heart failure (diuretics, ACE inhibitors or beta-blockers); and
  • medicines to treat angina (nitrates, calcium antagonists or beta-blockers). If tests show that your coronary arteries are very badly blocked, your doctors may consider surgery to widen the artery (angioplasty) or re-route the blood flow (bypass graft).

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Last Updated 06/03/2008 17:20:01
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