Adam's Heart Valve Surgery Blog – Page 12

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.

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).

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.

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.

Video available online at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH-OXMFI02k

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"

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.

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.

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.

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.

I just received a great question from Claudia about atrial fibrillation and the use of Amiodarone after heart valve surgery. In her email, Claudia asks me, "Hi Adam, I had mitral valve repair surgery two weeks ago. I had an atrial fibrillation episode after the operation. What is the usual amount of time patients stay on Amiodarone?"

To answer Claudia's question, I just interviewed Dr. Douglas Johnston, the Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. Click here to see my interview with Dr. Douglas Johnston.

My thoughts and prayers remain with Damar Hamlin, 24, defensive back of the Buffalo Bills. As you may have seen, Damar experienced a cardiac arrest while making a tackle during Monday's football game between the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals.

The great news is that the latest medical reports suggest that Hamlin's condition is improving. According to CNN, doctors say Hamlin has shown "remarkable improvement" in the last 24 hours and is "neurologically intact". Hamlin has been in the intensive care unit since he was taken from the field.

Damar Hamlin (Buffalo Bills)

Dear Patients and Friends,

On behalf of Robyn, my wife, and Ethan, our son, I want to wish you a very safe, healthy and happy holidays!

All the best in 2023!
Adam

On behalf of our patient community, I would like to extend an extraordinary "Congratulations!" to Mike Mussallem, the CEO of Edwards Lifesciences, on the announcement of his upcoming retirement in May, 2023. I also need to extend a mighty "Thank You!" to Mike for his life-long commitment and dedication to advancing heart valve disease treatment.

Congratulations to Mike Gabler, transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) specialist at Edwards Lifesciences, for winning Survivor 43!!!

Complications after heart valve surgery can be confusing, scary and frustrating for patients, their family members and friends. For this reason, we just interviewed Dr. Joanna Chikwe, the Chair of Cardiac Surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.

Click here to see the "Top 5 Complications After Heart Valve Surgery".

Dear Patients and Friends,

Thanks to your support of the HeartValveSurgery.com community, I am happy to share that we just sponsored the life-saving heart surgery of Johann, a courageous 7-year-old boy from the city of Cebu in the Philippines.

Johann (Heart Surgery Patient)

U2 is my favorite rock band.

So... As a die-hard fan, I think I know a good amount of trivia about Bono, U2's singer. However, my eyebrows just shot to the top of my head when I learned that Bono had heart valve surgery!

Click Here to See Bono's Heart Valve Surgery Story.

Keep on tickin' Bono!
Adam

I am very excited to announce that Saint Alphonsus Heart Institute in Boise, Idaho just became the newest sponsor of HeartValveSurgery.com.

I am very excited to announce that WakeMed Heart & Vascular in Raleigh, North Carolina, just became the newest heart valve surgery center to join us at HeartValveSurgery.com.

[Update: Thanks to our wonderful patient community, our survey is now complete.]

Can I ask you a quick favor? To help future patients, I want to learn how people diagnosed with aortic stenosis get educated about their disease, treatment options and recovery.

That said, I would LOVE to hear your feedback on four new educational videos about aortic stenosis. If you have been diagnosed with aortic stenosis and you have not had an operation yet, will you please take the survey?

In advance, thanks so much for your help!

I really appreciate it!

Keep on tickin!
Adam