Adam’s Heart Valve Surgery Blog

As you can read below, Charlotte is dealing with a unique patient condition. In her email, Charlotte asks me whether or not I know of any patients with a similar diagnosis. Unfortunately, I don’t. That said, I thought it would be a good idea to post her email in my blog to see if anyone out there can help Charlotte. Here is what she wrote to me:

Adam,

I have a question because even my doctor’s can’t answer some of my questions.

I had lung cancer 13 years ago (hooray for overcoming lung cancer). I had the left lung completely removed, which is probably what save my life. I had surgery and radiation. I had one lymph node in the pulmonary artery area that had cancer so they gave me radiation directly on the heart.

Three years ago doctors found a leaking aortic valve. So I had aortic valve replacement surgery. Since I was only 51, my husband and I decided to go with the mechanical heart valve surgery because the mechanical valve is suppose to last longer than a bioprosthetic valve. I was in surgery 6 hours. At that time, there was a concern about getting me off of the ventilator because I only have one lung and they did have a little trouble getting me off of it.

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Some patients want to know EVERYTHING before their operation - the valve anatomy, the surgical process, the recovery details. Other patients want to know absolutely NOTHING about their upcoming surgery. Many say to me, “Honestly Adam, I don’t want to know a thing. The more I know, the more I will worry.”

I can understand both positions. That said, this blog is for those who want to know everything - especially about the anatomy of the mitral valve. Dana just wrote to me, “Adam - Can you help me understand what the mitral valve annulus is? My sister needs mitral valve repair surgery due to regurgitation and that term - mitral valve annulus - came up in our last discussion.”

No problem Dana. To start, please look at the two figures below. You can see a top- and side-view of the mitral valve. The posterior and anterior annulus is labeled on both diagrams.

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Following up on a recently blog about children with heart murmurs, I received an email from Sharon that reads, “Adam - Thanks for your blog about structural versus functional heart murmurs. As a parent, I’m curious to know if you can further help me understand the correlation of heart murmurs to heart valve problems? I’m trying to understand whether my daughter’s murmur (mitral valve prolapse) will eventually lead to some form of valve repair or replacement. Any thoughts? Best, Sharon”

This is an interesting question that I can directly relate too. If you didn’t know, I was incorrectly diagnosed (when I was 5 years old) with a heart murmur due to mitral valve prolapse. I lived the next 28 years with no problems. Then, the problems started and eight weeks later I had aortic and pulmonary valve replacements at USC Medical Center.

Obviously, I am evidence of the correlation of heart murmurs and heart valve problems - specifically a murmur caused by a bicuspid aortic valve. However, when you review the statistics of heart murmurs that lead to heart valve surgery, the correlation is relatively small.

First, consider that there are approximately 100,000 heart valve surgeries in the United States each year. Then, consider that 2% of the US population, or 4 million people, have some form of murmur due to mitral valve prolapse (not including the other forms of valve disorders). If you do the math, you quickly realize that the correlation of heart murmurs that trigger severe heart valve problems and, ultimately, heart valve surgery is tiny.

That said, I strongly encourage all patients diagnosed with a heart murmur to continually monitor and seek ongoing care from a cardiologist. The last thing you want is to let a treatable heart murmur transition into severe valve disease (dilated / enlarged heart) and heart failure.

I hope this helps explain a little more about the correlation between heart murmurs and actual heart valve problems.

Keep on tickin!

Adam Pick is a double, heart valve surgery patient and author of The Patient’s Guide To Heart Valve Surgery, a unique book which integrates the clinical facts of heart valve surgery with the personal experiences of an actual heart valve surgery patient. To learn more about Adam and his heart valve surgery book, click here.

Herbert, from the Philippines, just emailed me about his recent diagnosis of mitral valve prolapse. As you can read below, Herbert is questioning whether or not mitral valve prolapse is fatal.

Herbert writes, “Hi Adam! I am Herbert Ares, a pastor from the Philippines. I am 42 years old, married, with an eight year old son. Two weeks ago, I was diagnosed with mitral valve prolapse. I have headaches from the mitral valve prolapse - about three to five times in a day. I’m also having other symptoms including chest pains, shortness of breath, panic and a strange feeling like I am going to die. The doctor prescribed Therabloc-Atenolol. The drug is really helping with the attacks. I’m concerned about going through mitral valve replacement due to the costs of the surgery. Is there any other way to cure mitral valve regurgitation? My doctor said MVP is non-fatal. Is it true?”

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Heidi just wrote me, “Adam - My sister was diagnosed with aortic regurg as a child. Forty years later, her valve is causing problems. Do you know what are aortic valve leak symptoms? And, can you tell me more about aortic valve replacement? I want to be prepared for our next conversation after she sees her cardiologist. Thanks! Heidi”

I hope you don’t mind Heidi, but I’m late for dinner. That said, I’m going to refer you to two links which reference aortic valve leak symptoms and aortic valve replacement. Here they are:

• Aortic Valve Leak - Symptoms, Problems

• About Aortic Valve Replacement

Let me know if you need anything else about the symptoms of aortic valve leaks or the details of aortic valve replacement, please let me know!

Keep on tickin!

Adam Pick is a double, heart valve surgery patient and author of The Patient’s Guide To Heart Valve Surgery, a unique book which integrates the clinical facts of heart valve surgery with the personal experiences of an actual heart valve surgery patient. To learn more about Adam and his heart valve surgery book, click here.

Brenda just emailed me an interesting question about mitral valve prolapse and headaches. She writes, “Adam - I was diagnosed with mitral valve prolapse over ten years ago. However, I have been completely asymptomatic since then. Recently, I have had really bad headaches… They might even be migraine headaches. Do you know if that is a symptom of mitral valve prolapse?”

This question raises two interesting points specific to heart valve disease.

• First, patients can be completely asymptomatic - meaning they do not have any of the documented symptoms of heart valve disease. I fell into this category of patients. Out of all the documented symptoms of leaking heart valves, I only really had one small symptom that forced me to see my cardiologist.
• Second, symptoms manifest differently for each patient case. There is no “one-size-fits-all” symptom-set that triggers the diagnosis of disorders including aortic stenosis or mitral regurgitation, etc.

Back to Brenda’s question… I just reviewed the symptoms of mitral valve prolapse. According to the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic, headaches are not common for mitral valve prolapse. However, after reviewing the symptoms listed at Medicine Net, migraine headaches are on their list of symptoms for MVP.

Given that variance in commonly identified symptoms, I would encourage you to see your cardiologist and get checked out. If, by chance, your mitral valve prolapse is triggering your headaches, it would be better to know sooner than later.

I hope this helps.

Keep on tickin!

Adam Pick is a double, heart valve surgery patient and author of The Patient’s Guide To Heart Valve Surgery, a unique book which integrates the clinical facts of heart valve surgery with the personal experiences of an actual heart valve surgery patient. To learn more about Adam and his heart valve surgery book, click here.