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Hearing that someone you love may need heart surgery can be scary, especially when you're also trying to understand an unfamiliar heart condition. In hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or HCM, treatment usually starts with medication. However, for some people, surgery becomes the best option when symptoms continue despite medical therapy, explains Joseph Dearani, M.D., a cardiovascular surgeon at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

"It's a relatively common genetic condition that affects about 1 in 500 people. It causes the heart muscle to become abnormally thick, most often in the wall between the heart's two main pumping chambers," says Dearani, the Sheikh Zayed Professor of Cardiovascular Diseases Honoring George M. Gura, M.D. "As a result, the normal pathway where blood leaves the heart can become blocked."

HCM can affect the heart in two ways: the muscle may become obstructive from the thickening, or it may become stiff. Both forms can cause symptoms such as shortness of breath, chest pain, fatigue, low energy and reduced endurance.

The obstructive form caused by the thickened heart muscle is the one that surgery can often correct. Most people with HCM have this type, which is why septal myectomy can be an effective treatment for appropriately selected patients, says Dearani, who performs the procedure.

Doctors usually diagnose HCM with an echocardiogram, an ultrasound that lets them see the heart and measure the thickness of the heart muscle.

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