I don’t know about you… But, when I was diagnosed with severe heart valve disease, I experienced several dislocating emotions. One of those emotions was confusion. As my cardiologist reviewed my echocardiogram, he used medical terms that were foreign to me.
To help future patients avoid a similar situation, I recently interviewed Dr. Randy Martin — the past president of The American Society of Echocardiography and Chief of Valvular & Structural Heart Disease at Piedmont Heart Institute — during the Heart Valve Summit. During our chat, Dr. Martin answered Ken’s question, “What is the most important diagnostic element prior to mitral valve surgery?”
As I write this, I am flying home to Los Angeles after attending the 2011 Heart Valve Summit. The meeting was beyond exciting as over 500 cardiologists, surgeons, anesthesiologists, physician assistants and nurses congregated in Chicago to discuss the treatment of heart valve disease — including heart valve repair and heart valve replacement surgery.
Over the next few weeks, I will be posting several educational videos filmed at the Heart Valve Summit. However, I thought you might like to learn more about this special event. That said, I asked Dr. David Adams, the Program Director of the Heart Valve Summit, to describe the significance of this meeting for the patients and the caregivers of our community.
Thanks to Dr. David Adams, the 500+ attendees, the American College of Cardiology and the American Association of Thoracic Surgeons for working together to extend and enhance our lives!
I also want to thank the medical device manufacturers who exhibited at the Heart Valve Summit. It was very neat to see, touch and learn about the technologies provided by Medtronic, St. Jude Medical, Cryolife, Sorin, Philips Healthcare, LSI Solutions and Edwards.
Personally, I was fascinated by the new CoreValve device, which is designed to replace the aortic valve without an incision to the patient’s sternum or ribs.
I was also quite amazed by the Philips 3D Transesophageal Echocardiogram (3D TEE) which enables surgeons and their medical teams to see images of the heart — including our valves — in three dimensions, in real-time, during cardiac procedures.
I received a great email from Donny about atrial fibrillation and heart valve surgery. Donny asked me, “Adam – I’ve suffered from a-fib longer than I can remember. Now, I need mitral valve surgery due to mitral regurgitation. My heart is already dilated. Am I an anomaly or this common?”
Luckily, I was able to ask Donny’s question directly to Dr. Patrick McCarthy, the chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. As Dr. McCarthy has performed over 4,000 heart valve procedures and maintains a clinical focus on atrial fibrillation, I thought you might like to hear Dr. McCarthy’s response…
Thanks to Donny for his question. And, a special thanks to Dr. Patrick McCarthy for sharing his clinical experience with all of us. For those patients who are hearing impaired, you will find a written transcript of this interview with Dr. McCarthy below.
I’m a history buff. That said, I was beyond excited to meet Professor Alain Carpentier at the Mitral Conclave. If you did not know, Professor Carpentier is widely regarded as the “Father” of modern heart valve surgery.
Adam, Professor Alain Carpentier, Dr. David Adams & Dr. Friedrich Mohr
After the introduction, I was fortunate to witness the filming of a very, very, very special interview with Professor Carpentier. Thanks to Dr. David Adams and Dr. Randy Martin, I am able to share portions of that interview below.
I encourage all patients and caregivers to watch this video and learn about this incredible man. As you will hear, Professor Carpentier’s curiosity triggered many of the innovations that transformed valvular treatment.
For those members of our community who are hearing impaired, I have provided a written transcript of Professor Alain Carpentier’s video interview below.
As I remember… Once diagnosed with severe heart valve disease, many patients begin researching surgical options immediately.
During that process, we quickly realize that different approaches for open heart surgery exist. One approach, the mini-thoracotomy, deploys a surgical technique unlike a median sternotomy, robotic surgery or transcatheter procedure.
In the past, we have discussed mini-thoracotomy for aortic valve replacement and mitral valve repair. That said, I thought you might like to see a video which shows a mini-thoracotomy being performed. While this video is a bit graphic, I found it very educational.
To learn more about mini-thoracotomy (also referred to as port access), you might want to consider the following:
