Is there any heart blocks which cannot be treated by surgery?

My dad,66yrs, who had his anchioplasty one year back still have pain in his jaws and shortness of breath and sometimes chest pain.This situation is continuing for about an year.When we asked about this to doctor,he is saying that,we cannot do any more surgery in this case,and the only thing is to continue taking the medicine and bed rest.He says the block is in a place where we can't do surgery.Is there any heart block which cannot be removed by an open heart surgery?

my did'nt had any heart attack yet.

Hi, Pearl. I'm sorry that your dad is still having chest pain. Unfortunately, not all blockages in the coronary (heart) arteries can be fixed by angioplasty or surgery. For bypass surgery, for example, we need to have a relatively open segment of a blood vessel to redirect flow into. If the entire length of the blood vessel is diseased, bypass may not offer much benefit. (Think of a road with one area of construction. You can make a detour around that area and keep going. If the ENTIRE road is torn up in front of you, there's nowhere for the detour to go!)

That is not to say that there are no other options. Medications can help, but if symptoms keep coming back, there may be other things that can help. Some of the newer treatments include a medicine called Ranexa or a treatment called EECP (Enhanced External CounterPulsation). If your dad continues to have symptoms, you should consult with a cardiologist (heart specialist) to see if either of these might be appropriate for him. Good luck!

The doctor probably thinks it's too risky, most likely if your dad isn't in good health, has bad heart failure, or is noncompliant (if he hasn't listened to what the doctors said to do in the past, i.e. take medicine or lose weight).