Adam’s Heart Valve Surgery Blog

Blog Topics: Pediatric Heart Surgery; Stem Cell Growth; Statistics Of Heart Valve Surgery.

This was an interesting set of statistics that I found interesting.
According to the Boston Herald…

About 28,000 children undergo open heart surgery each year, and eight of 1,000 babies are born with some form of heart defect, including a faulty heart valve.

As you may have read in my story, I was born with a congenital, bicuspid aortic valve.  Thirty-three years later, I had a Ross Procedure (aortic and pulmonary valve replacements).  Today, I’m completely recovered and better than ever!!!

PLUS: MORE ON STEM CELL RESEARCH - FOLLOW UP FROM LAST WEEK HEART BLOG

Doctors say they are a significant step closer to producing stem-cell-generated heart valves for children, structures that can grow with the child.

They would eliminate the need for repeat surgeries, as now is the case when conventional methods are used.

Medical researchers at Children’s Hospital in Boston say they can create the valves from stem cells derived from the bone marrow and coax those cells in the lab to grow into a complete, functioning heart valve. The process is called tissue engineering, an area of science in which investigators are attempting to develop replacement parts for structures damaged by disease and age.

The valves should be available for clinical trials within three years, John Mayer said.

“These are stem cells derived from the bone marrow,” Mayer said. “They are not embryonic stem cells.”

Mayer and his collaborators are reporting their work in Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association.

Tissue engineers at Wake Forest University already have grown a functioning human bladder derived from stem cells. The new work involves heart valves, which provide one-way blood flow from the heart’s right ventricle into the pulmonary artery.

Learn more about Stem Cells And Heart Valve Replacements here.

Do you know how many heart valve surgeries are performed each year?

If not, please click here to find out!

Keep on tickin,

Adam

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 17th, 2007 at 10:05 pm and is filed under Heart Valve Surgery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Print This Post | EMail This Post.