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Complications

By Mayo Clinic staff

Heart attack complications are often related to the damage done to your heart during a heart attack. This damage can lead to the following conditions:

  • Abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias). If your heart muscle is damaged from a heart attack, electrical "short circuits" can develop, resulting in abnormal heart rhythms, some of which can be serious, even fatal.
  • Heart failure. The amount of damaged tissue in your heart may be so great that the remaining heart muscle can't do an adequate job of pumping blood out of your heart. This decreases blood flow to tissues and organs throughout your body and may produce shortness of breath, fatigue, and swelling in your ankles and feet. Heart failure may be a temporary problem that goes away after your heart, which has been stunned by a heart attack, recovers over a few days to weeks. However, it can also be a chronic condition resulting from extensive and permanent damage to your heart following your heart attack.
  • Heart rupture. Areas of heart muscle weakened by a heart attack can rupture, leaving a hole in part of the heart. This rupture is often fatal.
  • Valve problems. Heart valves damaged during a heart attack may develop severe, life-threatening leakage problems.
Preparing for your appointment Risk factors
References
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  16. Alcoholic beverages and cardiovascular disease. American Heart Association. http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/NutritionCenter/Alcohol-Wine-and-Cardiovascular-Disease_UCM_305864_Article.jsp. Accessed July 12, 2011.
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DS00094 Nov. 17, 2011

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