Thanks to your excellent questions, I had several meaningful discussions at the recent 47th annual meeting of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons in San Diego, California.

For example, Peggy wrote to me, “Adam – I’m diagnosed with severe aortic stenosis. I’m curious… How do I know if my heart valve surgeon is good?” I posed that exact question to Dr. Jurgen Ennker, the chief of cardiothoracic surgery at MediClin Heart Center in Lahr, Germany which is just outside of Frankfurt.

So you know, Dr. Jurgen Ennker is a leading heart valve surgeon in Germany. Over the past 15 years, Dr. Ennker and his team have replaced over 3,000 diseased valves with the Medtronic Freestyle device (a porcine heart valve replacement).

Medtronic Freestyle Porcine Heart Valve Replacement Device

As some members of our community are hearing impaired, I created a video transcript of Dr. Jurgen Ennker’s video blog below.

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Since posting my video interview with Dr. Marc Gerdisch about Extracellular Matrix, I have received several patient emails about this unique technology. Paul writes to me, “Adam – What do you think about the procedure where an Extracellular Matrix cloth is attached to the damaged valve which stimulates tissue growth and fixes the problem without a heart valve replacement? Thanks, Paul”

Personally, I’m fascinated with technology. So, I’m very intrigued to see how Extracellular Matrix impacts heart valve repair and heart valve replacement surgery over time. However, to better understand the clinical application of Extracellular Matrix for patients today, I contacted Dr. Gerdisch, chief of cardiothoracic surgery at St. Francis Heart Center in Indiana.

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In case you missed it, some interesting data was just released about the Mosaic porcine heart valve replacement. According to a report in The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, the Mosaic bioprosthetic valve — which has been implanted in patients for the past 12 years — continues to demonstrate positive performance.

Mosaic Bioprosthetic Heart Valve Replacement (Porcine Tissue)

As you may know, artificial heart valves are designed to replace diseased heart valves — typically the aortic or mitral valve — which suffer from conditions including stenosis (narrowing heart valve) and regurgitation (leaking heart valves).

Biological heart valve replacements are made from cow (bovine) tissue, pig (porcine) tissue or horse (equine) tissue. While less durable than mechanical heart valve replacements, biological heart valve replacements do not require the patient to take anticoagulants (Coumadin) for the balance of their lives.

The Mosaic heart valve replacement, which received FDA approval in 2000, is made from pig tissue and was designed to protect against post-operative issues including (i) valve calcification and (i) structural degeneration.

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At the recent Society of Thoracic Surgeons convention, I was fortunate to meet several leading heart valve surgeons. One of those surgeons was Dr. Tomislav Mihaljevic from The Cleveland Clinic. Considering that Dr. Mihaljevic’s specialty is minimally invasive heart valve surgery, I was intrigued to hear his clinical response to the question, “What are the advantages of robotic mitral valve repair?”

As noted in this video, Dr. Mihaljevic has performed successful surgery on many members of our community including Anne Shannon (aortic valve replacement) and Ashish Yaduka (mitral valve repair).

To help those patients and caregivers that are hearing impaired, I have provided a video transcript of Dr. Mihaljevic’s interview below.

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Ken just sent me a financial question about the cost of an echocardiogram. He writes, “Adam – A few years back, I was diagnosed with moderate mitral regurgitation. Since then, I lost my job and my health insurance. Lately, I’ve experienced shortness of breath and fatigue. Do you know how much a heart valve echocardiogram costs? I’m nervous and curious to see if my mitral valve prolapse has gotten worse? Thanks, Ken”

To help Ken, I just asked Robyn, my wife, for our medical statements from December — which is when I had my last echocardiogram.

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