OBJECTIVE: To understand the meanings for the process of living, for patients undergoing myocardial revascularization surgery, and to construct an explanatory theoretical model. METHOD: Grounded Theory was used, with data collection undertaken between October 2010 and May 2012, in a health institution which specializes in cardiac surgery, located in the south of Brazil. Thirty-three subjects were interviewed (patients, health care professionals and family members), distributed in four sample groups. Result: The explanatory theoretical model was comprised of 11 categories and the central phenomenon. The specialized service and the cardiac rehabilitation program formed the context, the discovery of the cardiac disease and the feelings experienced during the perioperative period were the cause and intervening conditions in the process of experiencing the myocardial revascularization surgery. The strategies were relying on the family's support, having faith and hope, and participating in the rehabilitation program. This process's main consequences were the confrontation of the changes and the resulting limitations, difficulties and adaptations to the new lifestyle after surgery. CONCLUSION: The process of experiencing the myocardial revascularization surgery constitutes an opportunity for maintaining the patient's life associated with the needs for confronting the significant changes in lifestyle.
Thoracic Surgery; Nursing; Myocardial Revascularization; Pain
