Recovery guide · Cardiac surgery
Heart surgery recovery
If your operation went through the breastbone — a median sternotomy, as in bypass surgery or a valve replacement — recovery is organised around one fact: the sternum is bone, and bone takes about six to eight weeks to knit. Almost every restriction you are given exists to protect it during that window.
This page is the overview. Each section links to the detail, and everything here defers to the instructions from your own surgical team.
The shape of the first eight weeks
Indicative only. Your procedure, your health before surgery and any complications all change the timeline — your team’s advice is the one that counts.
Sternal precautions, and why they exist
Your breastbone was divided and is now held by wire while bone bridges the gap. Wire tolerates tension poorly, and the movements that load it most are the ordinary ones: pushing up out of a low chair, pulling a door, lifting a kettle with one arm, reaching behind you for a seatbelt.
Hospitals differ on the exact limits and how long they last — there is genuine variation in practice. Use the numbers your own physiotherapist gives you, and ask rather than guess.
- Keep within the lifting limit you were given — and split loads between both arms rather than carrying with one
- Get out of a chair or bed by rolling and using your legs, not by pushing with your arms
- Brace the chest before you cough or sneeze — a cushion, your arms, or a fitted support vest
- Do the breathing exercises you were taught, on schedule, even when they are uncomfortable
- Don’t drive until your team clears you — both for the sternum and for your reaction times
- Take the pain relief you were prescribed — pain that stops you breathing deeply or walking causes its own complications
Where chest support fits
The pillow patients carry everywhere exists because the chest needs bracing. A fitted support vest does that continuously — including at night and in the car, which is when nobody is holding a cushion.
It is also the part of recovery with randomised evidence behind it. Across four trials of the POSTHORAX® vest in more than 4,800 cardiac surgery patients, sternal wound complications were reduced; the largest trial reported a 54% lower relative risk of deep sternal complications with routine use.
Contact your surgical team straight away if
- the wound becomes more red, swollen or painful, or starts to discharge fluid
- you feel or hear a click, grinding or movement in the breastbone
- you develop a fever, or feel generally unwell in a new way
- breathlessness, chest pain or palpitations are new, worse, or different
- your legs or ankles swell suddenly, or your weight climbs quickly
In an emergency call 000. This list is not exhaustive — if something feels wrong, ring your team rather than waiting for the next appointment.
Go deeper
Timeline
How long healing takes
What is still healing after the six-to-eight-week mark.
Energy
Fatigue after surgery
Why it happens and how to pace the first month.
Warning signs
Complications to watch for
Sternal instability, wound changes and breathing problems.
The rules
Sternal precautions explained
Lifting limits, standing up, and how to cough without dreading it.
Cost
Claim it on private health
Rebates commonly $100–$300 through extras cover.
Before you order
Sizing guide
Vest size is not shirt size — measure in two minutes.
Different incision
Thoracic surgery recovery
Thoracotomy, lung resection and rib injury.
Questions patients ask
+How long does recovery take?
The breastbone typically knits in six to eight weeks, and most restrictions are built around that. Energy and stamina take longer — three to six months before feeling like yourself is common, with cardiac rehabilitation running across that period.
+Why does coughing hurt so much?
A cough drives the two halves of the divided sternum against each other. The pain is that movement and friction, not the skin incision — which is why bracing the chest changes it so noticeably.
+When can I drive again?
When your team clears you. It depends on the healing sternum, your medication and your reaction times rather than a fixed date. Patients often find the seatbelt sits right over the wound — one of the situations chest support is most used for.
+Should I wear a support vest?
External support limits front-to-back movement of the sternum while it heals, and it is the part of recovery with randomised evidence behind it. Discuss it with your surgical team, and see the published trials.
+Can I sleep on my side?
Most patients start on their back and move onto their side as it becomes comfortable, guided by their team. Getting in and out of bed loads the chest most, and is where patients wearing support most often notice the difference.
Who writes this, and what it is not
Written by Posthorax Australia, the Australian distributor of the POSTHORAX® range, for patients and families in the weeks around cardiac surgery. Claims about the device come from the randomised trials cited on our clinical evidence page; general recovery guidance reflects standard postoperative practice.
We are not your treating team and this is not medical advice. Timelines and restrictions vary between patients, procedures and hospitals — where anything here conflicts with your surgeon, physiotherapist or cardiac rehabilitation service, follow them.
Last reviewed 30 July 2026 · Corrections: sales@posthorax.com.au or 1300 707 222