Sobhan says, "My understanding of mechanical vs bioprosthetic ..."
Richard says, "To my friend rose..."
Alfred says, "My surgery has been moved back one day to Wednesday ..."
Dr. Marc Gerdisch is a heart valve expert having performed over 4,000 heart valve repair and replacement operations during his career.
For a minimally invasive procedure, they access your heart from the right side, have to pry open your ribs, and maneuver around many obstacles, so there is a higher risk of complications. So I suppose it might take longer and you end up on the machine longer. Risk of cracked ribs are high, especially with osteoporosis. We have lots of nerves around the ribs, so it’s more painful. For a sternotomy, they saw through your sternum, obviously, but you have very few nerves in that area and the break is highly controlled.
I only interviewed two surgeons but consulted many cardiologists. Their opinions varied widely in terms of when to have my surgery but they had very little to say about the type of procedure. Only one of them felt strongly that it should be open heart, where the surgeon can actually look inside and fix whatever they find in one go. The surgeon I selected did both types and he would’ve done a mini if I asked him to, but I opted to get a sternotomy. Based on my research, I think the only advantage of a mini procedure is the shorter recovery time, assuming you don’t end up with unintended cracked ribs.