Adam's Heart Valve Surgery Blog – Page 38

As we continue to monitor the roll-out of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) technologies, I just learned about a recent study for the CoreValve.

Medtronic CoreValve TAVI Device

Medtronic, the manufacturer of the CoreValve, just announced encouraging data for the device which is (i) commercially available in Europe and (ii) in clinical trials in the United States.

Data published from the study showed that:

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Prior to the Heart Valve Summit, I received over 70 patient questions for the doctors at the conference. In her question, Kim asked, “Hi Adam, I have a bicuspid aortic valve with a valve size of .6 and a gradient of 80. When can I expect to have surgery?”

To answer Kim’s question, I was very fortunate to meet and interview Dr. Robert Bonow, who is a Past President of The American Heart Association and current Professor of Cardiology at Northwestern University. I have posted a written transcript of this video (below) for the patients and caregivers who are hearing impaired.

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Patient interest specific to transcatheter aortic valve implantation is very, very, very high. However, patients with mitral valve disorders, including mitral regurgitation, are wondering, “What about me? Are there any catheter-based solutions for mitral valve surgery?”

To answer that question, I interviewed Doctor Steven Bolling at the Heart Valve Summit. So you know, Dr. Bolling is the Director of the Mitral Valve Clinic at the University of Michigan. During his career, Dr. Bolling has performed over 3,000 mitral valve procedures. (If you are hearing impaired, a written transcript of this interview is provided below.)

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Leading up to the Heart Valve Summit, I received an interesting question from Jim. He asked,  “Adam – What is the likely progression of systolic anterior motion of the chordae?”

To answer Jim’s question, I met with Doctor David Adams, MD, one of the Program Directors of the Heart Valve Summit and the Chairman of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center. The highlights of our discussion are featured in this video. Also, for the patients and caregivers in our community who are hearing impaired, I have provided a written transcript of this conversation below.

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I’ve said it before and, hopefully, I will be saying it again…. I love hearing from the patients in our community after their surgeries!

This time, Shelly Gould, from Redding, California, sent me a collage of her first anniversary from mitral valve repair. Doctor Luis Castro from Sequoia Heart & Vascular Institute performed Shelly’s surgery.

Congratulations to Shelly!!!

Keep on tickin!
Adam

I’m just returning home to Los Angeles after spending the past few days at the Heart Valve Summit in Chicago. This special event brings together leading cardiologists and surgeons to discuss the optimum treatment of valve disease. Needless to say, the event was… Amazing!

In the near future, I will be posting several videos filmed during the event. However, in the meantime, here are some pictures that I took at the Heart Valve Summit. Here’s a picture of the Grand Ballrooom that was filled with over 400 physicians during the conference.

I was lucky to reconnect with Doctor David Adams, MD, the Program Director of the Heart Valve Summit, and Gideon Sims, the Senior Director, Information Technology & Web Strategy at Mount Sinai.

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Starting tomorrow, I’ll be at the Heart Valve Summit in Chicago, Illinois. During the conference, I will be very fortunate to meet with several physicians that specialize in heart valve treatment including Dr. McCarthy, Dr. Chitwood, Dr. Bolling and Dr. Adams.

Do you have any questions about your diagnosis, your symptoms, the different types of valve surgery or anything else? If so, please scroll below or email me at adam@heartvalvesurgery.com.

As shown on our videos page, your question may be featured in a live video interview that will be featured at our website.

Keep on tickin!
Adam

Good news!

Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida just launched a new Heart Valve Clinic Microsite in the Valve Clinics section of our website. Using this microsite, the patients and caregivers within our community can quickly learn about Holy Cross Hospital and its team of cardiologists and surgeons that specialize in heart valve therapy.

On behalf of our community, many thanks to Dr. Harold Roberts, Dr. Vicente Font, Dr. Alan Niederman, Dr. Joshua Purow, Dr. Irving David, Dr. David Llanos, Chloe Lebron and Christine Moncrieffe for their support of this project!

To see the Holy Cross Hospital Heart Valve Clinic Microsite, please click here.

Keep on tickin!
Adam

I recently received a great question from Kerrigan about heart murmurs after heart valve surgery. In his email, Kerrigan writes, “Hi Adam – I had aortic valve replacement with a porcine valve three years ago. Since the valve replacement, I’ve had a detectible murmur that has not changed since the first, post-op baseline echocardiogram. Is it common to have a murmur after heart valve surgery?”

To answer Kerrigan’s question, I met with Dr. Luis Castro, MD, the Medical Director of Sequoia Heart Institute. During his career, Dr. Castro has performed over 3,000 heart valve procedures. You can see the highlights of our discussion in this video. For the patients in our community who are hearing impaired, I have provided a transcript below.

I hope this video helped Kerrigan (and perhaps you) learn a little more about heart murmurs after valve surgery.

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Good news!

The educational seminar I recently spoke at went great. The seminar, “For People with Heart Murmurs”, was well attended and very interactive. After I shared my story, Doctor Junaid Khan provided the patients an overview of heart murmurs and the common forms of heart valve disease including mitral regurgitation and aortic stenosis.

Doctor Khan then discussed the different types of heart valve therapies. In closing, Dr. Khan shared some very interesting data about newer surgical techniques including minimally invasive approaches using port-access (also known as mini-thoracotomy) and transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI).

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In case you missed it… The Sorin Group, a leading manufacturer of heart valve replacement devices, recently announced that its Perceval Sutureless Heart Valve Replacement device received a CE Mark for extended indications in Europe.

Prior to this announcement, the Perceval was limited to patients who were 75 years or older.  Now, the Perceval can be used on patients with severe aortic stenosis that are over the age of 65.

If this is your first time hearing of the Perceval sutureless aortic valve replacement device, you may want to know the following:

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Hearing from you — the patients and caregivers of our community — continues to be my favorite part of running this website. That said, I just received a great patient success story from Jeff Adams of Seattle, Washington.

In his email, Jeff wrote to me:

Jeff Adams – Mitral Valve Repair Patient

I learned that I had mitral valve regurgitation in March of this year.  It came as a complete surprise!  As a fit, 48 year old male in excellent health, I assumed I had at least 17+ years before I had to worry about my own cardiac issues.  Though my team of cardiologists in the Seattle area were up for the task of a complex mitral valve repair, Dr. Steven Bolling was the only surgeon I spoke with that had absolute confidence in himself and his team to get the job done AS A REPAIR without concern that he would have to resort to a replacement valve.

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Hi everybody,

I just wanted to remind the patients and caregivers in Northern California that I will be speaking at “For People With Heart Murmurs”, an educational seminar hosted by Dr. Junaid Khan and Alta Bates Summit Medical Center on Tuesday night. At the conclusion of the event, all attendees will receive a free signed copy of my book.

To reserve your spot, please call Ellen at 510-869-6737 or email carrole@sutterhealth.org. Here’s the invitation for the event:

I look forward to seeing you in Oakland!

Keep on tickin!
Adam

As a technology enthusiast, I really enjoy monitoring the new devices impacting heart valve therapy.

That said, I thought you might want to learn about the CoreValve, a new transcatheter aortic valve replacement device for patients with aortic stenosis (a narrow heart valve). As you can see in this video post, the CoreValve replaces a diseased aortic valve without any incision to the patient’s sternum or ribs.

Last week, Medtronic, the manufacturer of the CoreValve, announced the following:

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I’m very happy to announce that Dr. Edwin C. McGee, Jr., a cardiac surgeon from Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago, has been named the ‘Featured Surgeon’ at HeartValveSurgery.com.

Dr. Edwin McGee – Heart Surgeon

As you may have already seen, Dr. McGee has performed successful heart valve surgery on several patients in our community including – Michael McKeon and Maria Leibold.

Michael McKeon, a former aortic valve replacement patient, stated, “I don’t overstate the facts here – Dr. McGee and his supporting team of doctors and nurses saved my life.”

Interestingly, Dr. McGee recently performed an innovative procedure where one ventricular assist device (VAD) was implanted into each ventricle of the patient’s heart, known as biventricular configuration or BiVAD, until a donor heart became available.

• To learn more about Dr. McGee, please click here.

Keep on tickin!
Adam

As many of you have shared in this blog and our online community, the process of being diagnosed with heart valve disease can be an isolating experience. So you know, that is why I started this website five years ago. I wanted to connect patients with similar disorders so that we could learn from, relate to and empower each other.

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Great news!!!

You’re invited to a special event titled, “Important Information for People with Heart Murmurs”. This educational event will be hosted by Alta Bates Summit Medical Center at the Lafayette Library in Oakland, California on Tuesday, September 18 at 6:30 pm (PST). To attend the community session, please call (510) 869-6737.

I have to admit… I feel very, very, very honored to be included as a speaker at this event. Along with Dr. Junaid Khan, a heart valve specialist, we will discuss the causes, the symptoms and the treatment of heart valve disease.

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I’ll never forget my 3-week check-up when Dr. Starnes, my heart surgeon, said to me, “Adam, the post-operative echocardiogram shows that your heart is doing excellent… Plus, we wrapped your pulmonary valve during the procedure, so you should benefit from that over time.” In the moment, I didn’t question Dr. Starnes about my wrapped pulmonary valve. To be honest, I didn’t care. I just wanted to hear that my heart was doing well after my double heart valve replacement surgery.

Wrapped Pulmonary Valve Used During Ross Procedure

However, as the community at HeartValveSurgery.com grew, I received several patient questions about “valve wrapping techniques” used during the Ross Procedure, a unique form or aortic valve replacement surgery. For that reason, I contacted Dr. Paul Stelzer, a Ross Procedure specialist at Mount Sinai Medical Center, to discuss this surgical innovation.

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I just received a very interesting from Joan about being tired after heart surgery.

In her email, Joan writes, “I am now 7 weeks post-op and am tired all the time and have no energy.  I remember so many folks telling me that after my surgery I would feel so much better and have all this amazing energy. Well, as of now I do not feel as energetic as I did before surgery… by a long shot! I had no real symptoms prior to aortic valve replacement even though the valve was badly diseased.   Now, everything is a major effort and I get out of breath with the slightest exertion.  I have a feeling it may be caused by the metoprolol drug (the only prescription I take) and I do have a call into my cardiologist to see if I can lower the dosage. I am eating a high protein diet and get lots of rest and a nap every afternoon.  Do you know when I might be feeling more energetic?”

I — and many other patients in our community — can relate to Joan. Although each patient heals at different rates, it seems like many of us are lethargic, fatigued and tired after heart surgery. Personally, I remember feeling exhausted for the first ten weeks after my valve replacement surgery. I remember saying to Robyn, my wife, “I’m soooooooo tired. When will I feel like my old self again?”

To learn more about this issue, I contacted Dr. Salenger, Director of Valve Surgery at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, New York. So you know, Doctor Salenger has a specific clinical interest in post-operative care of heart valve replacement and heart valve repair patients.

In his response to Joan, Dr. Salenger noted the following:

Hi Joan – Don’t get discouraged!  Everyone is an individual and people recover at different speeds.  It is not unusual to still be tired and lack energy at 7 weeks.  Some people take 12 weeks or longer to get over the surgery.  If you compare your energy levels on a  week-to-week basis, you should see some improvement.  If you are not improving as time goes on then there are some things for you and your doctor to think about. Your idea about the metoprolol is a good point.  Also, ask your cardiologist if any other medications could be a problem.  Especially focus on any medications that are new to you.  Your physician may also want to check a chest x-ray to make sure your lungs look okay, and evaluate your heart and valve function with an echocardiogram.  Most likely, however, you are on a normal post-operative trajectory and can feel confident you will be back in form, with more energy, over time. Hope this is helpful, Dr. Rawn Salenger

I hope this Joan (and perhaps you) learn more about being tired after heart surgery. Thanks to Dr. Salenger for sharing his clinical expertise with our community.

Keep on tickin!
Adam

In case you missed it, U.S. News and World Reports recently published its annual top listing of top hospitals for cardiology and heart surgery.

As I reviewed the list, I noticed that the Cleveland Clinic retained its #1 position on this list. I could be wrong but I think this is the 18th consecutive year that the Cleveland Clinic held this spot. I also noticed that Mount Sinai Hospital broke into the top 10 for the first time since I began monitoring this list.

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