“What About Adhesions, Pericardium Closing and Heart Valve Reoperations?” Asks Judy

By Adam Pick on April 22, 2011

I just received an interesting email from Judy about adhesions, the pericardium and heart valve re-operations.

Judy writes, “Hi Adam, I am a 66-year old female preparing for aortic valve replacement. I have calcification at the sinotubular junction. Reoperation would be tricky in my case as I have an anomalous circumflex artery. I wondered what can be done to minimize the chances of adhesions? Could not closing the pericardium contribute to adhesions? What are the pros and cons of leaving the pericardium open? Thanks, Judy”

 

Adhesions After Heart Surgery
Post-Operative Adhesion

 

To answer Judy’s questions, I contacted Dr. Craig Smith, the chairman of surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital / Columbia University Medical Center. If you did not know, Dr. Smith recently performed aortic valve replacement on Barbara Walters. Doctor Smith has also operated on Former President Bill Clinton and several members of our patient community including Gary Poltorak.

 

Dr. Craig Smith - Heart Surgeon at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, New York
Dr. Craig Smith – Heart Surgeon of Former President Bill Clinton
and Barbara Walters (NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital)

 

In his response to Judy, Dr. Smith noted…

 

Calcification of the sinotubular junction is very common, and usually unimportant, although it’s a matter of degree, and occasionally requires partial removal at the time of surgery.  An anomalous circumflex rarely has anything to do with the conduct of the first or subsequent operations; I’m curious why you were told this.

 

As for questions about adhesions, Dr. Smith noted:

 

Adhesions can’t be prevented.  Various things have been tried over the years to minimize adhesions, none convincingly beneficial.  It is unclear on the basis of real evidence whether closing the pericardium minimizes adhesions, although many believe it makes re-entry somewhat easier.  The latest thing, which might prove beneficial, is to close the pericardium with a substance called CorMatrix.

 

If you are unfamiliar with the term… Adhesions are a form of scar tissue. Scar tissue may form within the membranes that surround the heart (pericardial sac) after surgery and potentially restrict heart function. The diagram below illustrates the use of CorMatrix during surgery.

 

CorMatrix For Heart Adhesions

 

Specific to Judy’s last question about reoperations, Dr. Smith shared:

 

Personally, I don’t find reoperations greatly different with open or closed pericardium.  Most reoperations are relatively routine and low risk, though certainly not all.  We don’t know yet whether reoperating after placement of CorMatrix will make a clear difference.

 

I hope this helped all of us learn more about adhesions, pericardium closing and reoperations. Thanks to Judy for her question and thanks to Dr. Craig Smith for his clinical insight. If you are interested to learn more about Dr. Craig Smith, please click here.

Keep on tickin!
Adam


Written by Adam Pick
- Patient & Website Founder

Adam Pick, Heart Valve Patient Advocate

Adam Pick is a heart valve patient and author of The Patient's Guide To Heart Valve Surgery. In 2006, Adam founded HeartValveSurgery.com to educate and empower patients. This award-winning website has helped over 10 million people fight heart valve disease. Adam has been featured by the American Heart Association and Medical News Today.

Adam Pick is a heart valve patient and author of The Patient's Guide To Heart Valve Surgery. In 2006, Adam founded HeartValveSurgery.com to educate and empower patients. This award-winning website has helped over 10 million people fight heart valve disease. Adam has been featured by the American Heart Association and Medical News Today.


Linda says on May 6th, 2011 at 7:31 pm

I just bought your book for my son and his wife. He is going to have his 3rd aortic valve replacement maybe his pulmonary too. His first was the ross proceedure done as one of the 1st at Oklahoma .We are in sanDiego. we are not stisfied with his Doctor or even the hospital.Im sure they are ok but we had no choice due to insurance.However, cleveland did his 2nd opinion.They differ with the Doctor.In their opinion he should not have the pulminary valve replaced just to keep from having to open him up at a later time.It is doing ok now.The doctor says opening his chest becomes more and more difficult and can now take up to 2 hrs instead of minutes due to pulling the heart away from the chest? Cleveland offers that he may have other options when the pulmonary valve has to be replaced. This is causing my son a lot of grief.He is already considered high risk.Trying to decide on Mechanical or not. He is in early 40s.HE has had infections both times.The last one his 3rd time..2 weeks later his valve was ready to be replaced.he is inearly signs of heart failure..never been there before..retaining fluid.He was very active until this..running etc. His Doctor wants the mechanical..my son wants to be active again. I know this is a lot but any informatiin can help. We cannot even get the record of his doctors surgeries or how many have been done at UCSD .I know the book will help..any thing else??Thank you
Linda a very concerned Mother


Leave a Reply

Newest Community Post

Ann says, "Strang question. Does anyone experience"
Read more

Sandy says, "I am wondering what so of your symptoms"
Read more

Margaret says, "I had successful mitral valve repair 4"
Read more

Find Heart Valve Surgeons

Search 1,500 patient-recommended surgeons