Adam’s Heart Valve Surgery Blog

Dear Patients and Friends,

In 2009, we launched the Surgeon Finder to help people find and research patient-recommended heart valve surgeons. Since then, the Surgeon Finder has over 2 Million page views!

To help future patients… My question to you is, “If you already had heart valve surgery, would you recommend your surgeon?” This is a great opportunity to celebrate your surgeon by posting a review. Click Here to Post Your Surgeon Review!

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I could ramble-on about the serendipitous moment we just experienced at The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Conference in San Diego. Instead, I will simply encourage you to click the play button on the video below to see why Amy’s question about small incisions brought a huge smile to the faces of Dr. Kevin Accola and myself.

 
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What do you think? Is the tricuspid valve still known as the “Forgotten Valve” in medical circles?  Are tricuspid valve patients still not getting diagnosed or treated for this serious, complicated and debilitating disease?

To answer these important questions, we were very fortunate to interview Dr. Gorav Ailawadi, the Chair of Cardiac Surgery at Michigan Medicine. Click here to see our video interview with Dr. Ailawadi about the “forgotten valve”.

 
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I’m fascinated by how people are using social media.

For example, I just learned that Dr. Raymond Singer, the Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Einstein Medical Center Montgomery – Jefferson Health, is using social media to educate, empower and connect with heart valve patients. At TikTok, Dr. Singer has over 81,000 followers. Amazing!

 
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I just received a very interesting question from Michael about mitral regurgitation and stroke.

In his email, Michael wrote to me, “Hi Adam, I am diagnosed with moderate-to-severe mitral regurgitation. I recently had a stroke while on a bike and crashed. The most of obvious causes of stroke have been eliminated. Afib, atrial fibrillation, is a consideration but not proven at this point. Can mitral regurgitation cause a stroke?”

To answer Michael’s question, I connected with Dr. Michael Acker, Chief of Cardiovascular Surgery at Penn Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During his extraordinary career, Dr. Acker has performed over 3,000 heart valve operations. In our community, Dr. Acker has successfully treated Patricia Garcia, Michael Casey, and Theresa Gusset.

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Hearing from patients all around the world is one of my favorite parts of running this website.  For example, I was so happy to receive the following note from Rajan, an aortic valve replacement patient, from Iceland.

Rajan with Dr. Anders Jeppsson

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Hey Everybody,

Thanks to your requests, we just launched a new “Find Members” feature in our Community for logged-in members! Here’s a quick video that explains how it works at the Patient News Feed.

Thanks to all the patients who requested this new feature. I hope it helps you!

Keep on tickin!
Adam

In response to our new post about radiation therapy associated heart valve disease with Dr. Douglas Johnston, I just received three, important follow-up questions from Christine.

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After my open-heart surgery and my wife’s brain surgery, Robyn and I committed ourselves to a healthy lifestyle.

An unexpected ingredient in our wellness recipe has been the addictive use of Peloton exercise classes. For me, the Peloton instructors are my favorite part of this next-gen fitness platform. Every time I need a mental reset or an inspirational jolt, the Peloton coaches – including Robin, Denis, Alex, Ben, Andy and Matt – always deliver a righteous, body-brain experience.

Emma Lovewell

 
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While cancer treatments for conditions including Hodgkin’s disease are often called “medical miracles” by patients, their families and friends, there can be unfortunate side effects from radiation therapy.  Specific to our community, patients may experience a unique form of heart valve disease following radiation treatment.

To learn more, I just interviewed Dr. Douglas Johnston, the Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, Illinois, who has performed over 3,000 heart valve repair and replacement operations.

Click here to see my interview with Dr. Douglas Johnston.

 
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Today is National Heart Valve Disease Awareness Day! It’s a special day to raise awareness to this under-diagnosed, under-treated, and deadly form of heart disease.

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The recovery from heart surgery can be a bit like a roller coaster. While some patients recover quickly, other patients struggle with issues related to pain management, cardiac depression, opioid overuse, and complications including fluid retention, infections and atrial fibrillation.

For these reasons, many physicians and medical teams have come together to establish a uniform protocol known as Enhanced Recovery After Heart Surgery (ERAS). To learn more, I interviewed Dr. Judson Williams, a leading heart valve surgeon from WakeMed Heart & Vascular in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Click here to see my interview with Dr. Judson about Enhanced Recovery After Heart Surgery (ERAS).

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I just received a great question from Carrie about timing aortic stenosis surgery for patients who do not have symptoms. In her email, Carrie asked me, “I’m 75 years old. I was diagnosed with aortic stenosis five years ago. I’m in the ‘waiting room’ and starting to dial down my life. Not fun! My cardiologist still thinks that I don’t have symptoms. What is the latest research on timing aortic stenosis surgery for patients who are mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic?”

To answer Carrie’s questions, I interviewed Dr. Joanna Chikwe, the Chair of Cardiac Surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, who has successfully operated on many patients in our community.

Click here to watch my interview with Dr. Chikwe about early surgery for asymptomatic aortic stenosis.

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Great news! Our live patient webinar, “Advances in Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR)”, was downright amazing with over 300 patients connected in real-time!

The webinar touched on many important patient considerations for the treatment of aortic valve disease using the newest advances in minimally-invasive TAVR. Featured speakers on the webinar included Dr. Howard Herrmann and Dr. Robert Li, interventional cardiologists and TAVR experts from Penn Medicine.

If you missed the webinar… No problem! Here is a video playback of the live event.

 
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I just received an email from Henry who writes, “I’d like to see some articles on tricuspid valve repair and tricuspid valve replacement (aka the “Forgotten valve”) especially for those of us with Implantable Cardioverter Defibrilators (ICDs) or pacemaker leads passing through the valve. There are current tricuspid valve repair trials.  But, they all seem to balk at patients with leads. Just a thought. Thanks, Henry”

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Webinar Update: Thanks to our community for an incredible TAVR patient webinar with Dr. Herrmann and Dr. Li. To watch the TAVR webinar video or download the free TAVR webinar eBook, please click here.

I’m excited to announce that our FREE and LIVE patient education events continue today, February 2, at 6pm EST, with a special webinar, “Advances in Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement”.  Featured speakers include Dr. Howard Herrmann, Director of Interventional Cardiology, and Dr. Robert Li, Co-Director of the TAVR Program, at Penn Medicine Heart and Vascular Center.

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Given the renewed interest for the Ross Procedure – from patients in our community – I’m getting lots of excellent questions about this advanced form of aortic valve replacement. For example, Joe asked me, “Is it more common for the aortic valve or pulmonary valve to fail?” and “If the aortic or pulmonary valve fails, can a transcatheter valve replace the failing valve without an open-heart procedure?”

To answer Joe’s questions, I interviewed Dr. Michael Ibrahim, a leading heart surgeon at Penn Medicine Heart and Vascular Center, who has performed over 2,000 heart valve operations.

Click here to watch my interview with Dr. Ibrahim about Ross Procedure reoperations.

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For the first time since 2020, the world’s leading heart valve experts gathered “in-person” this weekend for the 59th Annual Meeting of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) in San Diego, California. The STS Conference brought together thousands of doctors, medical companies and researchers to discuss the latest advances in heart valve surgery and other cardiac conditions.

 
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I just received several great questions form Nikki about the Dacron grafts that may be used during heart valve surgery to replace a life-threatening aortic aneurysm. Nikki asked me, “Hi, Adam. My son had a bicuspid aortic valve repair and an aneurysm repair with a Dacron graft. Will this graft last forever or does it eventually calcify? Will he eventually require another operation during his lifetime?”

To answer Nikki’s questions, I interviewed Dr. Kevin Accola, a leading heart surgeon at AdventHealth in Florida who has performed over 14,000 cardiac procedures.

Click here to watch my interview with Dr. Accola about Dacron grafts, aneurysms and aortic valve repair.

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I love hearing patient success stories from our community!

For example… I just interviewed Janet Peterson, a retired accountant from Wadesville, Indiana, about her successful, minimally-invasive mitral valve repair surgery. It was great to learn why and how Janet got a mitral valve repair surgery given her severely leaky heart valve.

Click here to watch Janet and Dr. Marc Gerdisch, her surgeon, share critical insights about mitral valve repair surgery.

 
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