Thierry's Journal

Professor Thierry P. Carrel working at Inselspital in Bern, Switzerland was highly recommended by my health insurance and by another cardiologist in Switzerland. He has performed around 10\'000 surgeries in the last 25 years (as assistant, teacher and operator). From these, around 1\'500 were on the aortic root (including Bentall and David repair) and Ross (around 100 procedures). I will fly soon to Switzerland to meet Professor Carrel.

I have received my first contact from a prominent cardiac surgeon in Switzerland, Prof. Thierry P. Carrel. He seems very friendly ! He told me that the best indication for the Ross technique is aortic stenosis while aortic regurgitation can be considered in case the aortic root and the ascending aorta are not dilated. If there is some dilatation of the aorta, the Ross procedure should be weighted against other techniques since the incidence of mid-term to late autograft failure due to recurrent dilatation is significantly higher. This was a really useful comment from Prof. Carrel and I am trying to fly to Switzerland to meet him!

I have started my quest for a surgeon. I live in Hong Kong, so it made sense that I should start here but there seems to be a clear preference for mechanical valves, which are not my preferred choice. I then looked at the US, which seems to have the experience of aortic valve replacement.