Adam’s Heart Valve Surgery Blog

I’m excited to announce that our LIVE and FREE patient education series continue this Thursday, October 10th, at 6pm EST, with a special webinar, “Advances in Bicuspid Aortic Valve Therapy”. Featured speakers include Dr. Kristen Sell-Dottin, Division Chair of Cardiac Surgery, Dr. Bryan Barrus, Cardiac Surgeon, and Dr. John Haney, Cardiac Surgeon, at Mayo Clinic.

Click here to sign up now.

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The patients in our heart valve community never cease to amaze me.  I could ramble on about what I just received in my inbox from Cuauhtemoc Velazquez, a patient from Toronto, Canada. Instead, I will simply provide you this wonderful opportunity to watch an extraordinary video that Cuauhtemoc shared with me titled, “10 Spiritual Lessons I Learned From Heart Surgery”.

 
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Since starting HeartValveSurgery.com nearly twenty years ago, I have learned a lot about the heart. However, it was not until I received this email from David Cattell, a heart valve patient in our community, that I became aware of an under-diagnosed condition known as cardiac amyloidosis. Many thanks to David for sharing his story and his research below.

David Cattell with Dr. Basar Sareyyupoglu (Mayo Clinic Florida)

 
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In a little over a decade, the utility of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) for the minimally-invasive treatment of severe aortic stenosis has exploded.  The number of TAVR therapies has soared from 4,600 in 2012 to over 100,000 cases in 2023, according to reports.

With the transformative progress TAVR has undergone in this short time, it’s no surprise that we received a question about the future of TAVR from Michael, a member of our patient community, who asked, “What advances do you foresee in the TAVR procedure in the next 15 years?” We met with Dr. Brent New at the Annual Meeting of The Society for Thoracic Surgeons to answer Michael’s question. Dr. New is the Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Methodist Healthcare in San Antonio, Texas, and gave some interesting insights into possible TAVR innovations coming in the future.

 
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Dear Patients and Friends,

As you know… Making a difference in the lives of heart valve patients has nothing to do with a website ranking. Alternatively, “making a difference” has everything to do with helping others in their time of need.

That said, I am honored to share that HeartValveSurgery.com has been named the #1 website on Feedspot’s “50 Best Cardiac Surgery Blogs & Website” for the fourth consecutive year.

 
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Many patients in our community have been diagnosed with multiple types of valvular disease and complex cardiac conditions including atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease and aortic aneurysms. For that reason, I was very excited when Dr. Edward Soltesz and Dr. Anthony Zaki from the Cleveland Clinic agreed to participate in a “Surgeon Roundtable” about high-risk heart valve surgery.

To see our new Surgeon Roundtable with Dr. Soltesz and Dr. Zaki about high-risk and complex heart valve surgery, please click here.

Many thanks to Dr. Edward Soltesz and Dr. Anthony Zaki for sharing their clinical experiences and research with our patient community!

Keep on tickin!
Adam

Over the past 10 years, we have learned a lot about the use Enhanced Recovery After Cardiac Surgery (ERAS) guidelines. For example, we have learned about rapid recovery protocols that are designed to minimize patient pain using rigid sternal fixation and cryoanalgesia while decreasing opioid (narcotics) usage. Most recently, we learned about in-operating room ventilator tube removal.

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Hearing from heart valve patients about their success stories continues to be one of my favorite parts of running HeartValveSurgery.com.   This time, it was Deborah Ogilvie that brought an ear-to-ear smile to my face.  As you can read below, Deborah just had an aortic valve reoperation performed by Dr. Alfredo Trento at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

 
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As many of you know, I love to try and grow vegetables.  For many years, I failed miserably.  Nothing went right.  I grew the wrong varieties for our climate. I grew the wrong strains that didn’t fit in my little garden.  I was so bad that I almost gave up.

 
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Wonderful!

During our recent patient webinar, “3 Questions to Ask Before Mitral Valve Surgery”, I received 46 questions that we did not have time to answer during the live event. That said, Dr. Marc Gillinov, who is the Chairman of Cardiac Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic and the featured speaker of the webinar, typed up answers to each patient question to help educate our patient community.

Question #1: Michael asks, “I already have a TAVR and now need a TMVR. I do have a ring in the mitral valve that was installed in 2005 both the valve and the ring are Edwards Lifesciences products. It’s a flexible and complete ring. What should I know?”

If the mitral valve ring is flexible, TMVR is not possible. — Dr. Marc Gillinov

 
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So, this is downright wonderful!

I just learned that HeartValveSurgery.com now has over 550,000 social media followers across Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter.

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On behalf of heart valve patients all over the world…

I need to extend a huge “Thank You!” to Dr. Raj Makkar and the entire heart team at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California!

Dr. Raj Makkar and Me

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Wonderful news! Our recent  webinar, “3 Questions to Ask Before Mitral Valve Surgery”, brought together patients from all over the world for this live educational event that featured Dr. Marc Gillinov, Chairman of the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.

In case you missed the webinar, here is a video replay of the webinar that has already been watched over 1,000 times on YouTube.

Thanks Dr. Gillinov & Cleveland Clinic!

On behalf of our patient community, I would like to extend a tremendous thank you to Dr. Marc Gillinov at Cleveland Clinic for sharing his research and clinical experiences specific to the three questions patients should ask before mitral valve surgery!

Keep on tickin!
Adam

P.S. You can also download a free copy of our new eBook, “3 Questions to Ask Before Mitral Valve Surgery”, at this link.

[Update: Great news! Our patient webinar, “3 Questions You Need To Ask Before Mitral Valve Surgery” with Dr. Marc Gillinov, the Chairman of the Cardiac Surgery at Cleveland Clinic, was fantastic.  To see a video replay of the webinar, click here.]

I’m excited to announce that our LIVE and FREE patient education events continue today, Thursday, August 22, at 6pm EST, with a special webinar, “3 Questions You Need To Ask Before Mitral Valve Surgery”.  The featured speaker is Dr. Marc Gillinov, the Chairman of the Cardiac Surgery at Cleveland Clinic, who has performed over 5,000 heart valve operations during his extraordinary career.

This special webinar will also include an interactive “Questions & Answers” session where you will be able to ask Dr. Gillinov your questions about mitral valve surgery.

This event is going to be great! Hope to see you on the webinar!

Keep on tickin!
Adam

I just received a very interesting question from Lori about heart valve surgery and corkscrew esophagus, also known as tortuous esophagus.

In her email, Lori asked me, “Hi Adam, I have been following you at the HeartValveSurgery.com YouTube Channel.  I get a lot of comfort from you with regards to valve disease and surgery. I am waiting to have both mitral and tricuspid valve surgery. But, here is my dilemma and question for you. I was recently diagnosed with a tortuous esophagus (corkscrew shaped).  The cardiac surgeon said that my esophagus will be a complication because he needs to use the transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) camera to perform this surgery. But, he cannot insert the TEE through my esophagus. Have you heard of this before? Do you know any experts that I could contact about my question? Thanks, Lori”

Corkscrew Esophagus (Source: New England Journal of Medicine)

 
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As many of you know, Robyn (my wife) and I are addicted to our Peloton bike and treadmill for several reasons.  So, on a recent trip to New York City, Robyn and I were very fortunate to attend live Peloton classes that were filmed and simultaneously streamed all over the world.  Being in the production of a Peloton class is really fun. Simply imagine that you are on a movie set while being coached by elite fitness instructors and sweating your arse off. 🙂

 
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Hey Everybody,

I’m getting more-and-more questions about mitral annular calcification (MAC) which is a unique type of heart valve disease that can cause debilitating symptoms and, unfortunately, death. For this reason, I was very excited to interview Dr. Patrick McCarthy about mitral annular calcification at The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Conference in San Antonio, Texas.

Click here to see Dr. McCarthy answer several quesitons about the management and the treatment of mitral annular calcification.

Keep on tickin,
Adam

With the increasing usage of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) to treat patients with aortic stenosis, we wanted to learn more about the stroke risk associated with this minimally-invasive technique that does not require an incision to the patient’s chest or ribs. Stroke complications have been cited as the “Achilles heel” of TAVR.

For this reason, we connected with Dr. Kendra Grubb, the surgical director of the Emory Structural Heart and Valve Center at Emory Healthcare in Atlanta, Georgia, who is a leading aortic valve and TAVR expert.  Click here to see my new interview with Dr. Grubb about stroke risk and TAVR.

Keep on tickin!
Adam

Hey Everybody,

After posting my video, “Patient Insights: Unwrapping A Cardiac Surgery Outcomes Report”, I received a bunch of great feedback from the heart valve patients in our community.

One of the questions from patients was, “How can I access the Cardiac Surgery Outcomes Reports managed by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS).  It’s a great question with a very simple answer.  Click here to access the Cardiac Surgery Outcomes Reports from the STS.

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I am very excited to announce that St. Elizabeth Healthcare just became the newest sponsor of HeartValveSurgery.com!

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