{"id":2058,"date":"2022-04-07T01:53:31","date_gmt":"2022-04-07T01:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/?page_id=2058"},"modified":"2023-09-27T12:53:23","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T12:53:23","slug":"need-for-mitral-surgery-gerdisch","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/need-for-mitral-surgery-gerdisch\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Will I Need Mitral Valve Surgery?&#8221; asks Wolfgang"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We just received a great question from Wolfgang about mitral regurgitation and the potential need for patients to undergo mitral valve surgery. In his email, Wolfgang writes to me, &#8220;Adam, I\u2019m 25 years old. I\u2019ve got mitral regurgitation between zero-to-one on a scale of four. I\u2019m afraid that the disease will progress. Do most people with mitral regurgitation and mitral valve prolapse eventually need a repair or a replacement?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To answer Wolfgang&#8217;s question, we contacted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Marc-Gerdisch-Indianapolis-Indiana.php\">Dr. Marc Gerdisch<\/a>, the Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Franciscan Health in Indianapolis, Indiana. During his 25+ year career, Dr. Gerdisch has performed over 6,000 cardiac procedures and more than 4,000 heart valve operations. At HeartValveSurgery.com, Dr. Gerdisch has successfully treated over 120 patients including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/journals\/user\/danrhoden\">Dan Rhoden<\/a> just a few days ago.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oKhbyXQtGVI\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Key Learnings About Mitral Valve Prolapse Surgery<\/h2>\n<p>Here are the key learnings that Dr. Gerdisch shared during our interview:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Approximately 2% of the population have some form of mitral valve prolapse which causes blood to flow backwards, or leak, across the valve.<\/li>\n<li>Only a small subset of patients with mitral valve prolapse will need an operation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/Images\/mitral-valve-regurgitation-diagram_3.jpg\" alt=\"Mitral Regurgitation\" width=\"300\" height=\"265\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The likelihood that a patient will need surgery is determined by the severity of the leak.\u00a0 For patients with a mild leak, the worse-case scenario that a patient will need surgery in 5 years is 5%.\u00a0 For patients with moderate-to-severe mitral regurgitation, there is a 50% chance those patients will need surgery.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/profileImages\/306_129_173.jpg\" alt=\"Dr. Marc Gerdisch\" width=\"129\" height=\"173\" \/>Dr. Marc Gerdisch<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A key indicator for the progression of mitral regurgitation and the potential need for surgery is the size of the mitral annulus.\u00a0 Dr. Gerdisch states, &#8220;The only real predictor we have is the size of their annulus. If we look at folks who have moderate insufficiency, if their annulus, which is where the leaflets attach, or the size of the hole or the orifice, if it\u2019s four centimeters or more, they have a considerably higher incidence of progression. Whereas folks who have smaller annuli, which makes sense, of course, because the leaflets are closer together, are less likely to progress.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>To help patients manage and monitor their mitral valve disease, Dr. Gerdisch recommends seeing a cardiologist once a year. Over time, a cardiologist will be able to determine whether mitral regurgitation is progressing or not. If the &#8220;leakiness&#8221; of the valve is not progressing, the cardiologist may recommend that the patient be seen less frequently.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/Images\/echocardiogram-types.jpg\" alt=\"Echocardiogram\" width=\"600\" height=\"314\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/echocardiogram-stress-doppler-tee.php\">Echocardiograms<\/a> are excellent diagnostic tests for rating the amount of blood leakage across the valve.\u00a0 For patients with a 1 rating of mitral regurgitation, that is considered &#8220;normal&#8221;. For patients with a 1 to 2 rating, that is considered &#8220;mild&#8221;.\u00a0 When patients have a rating of 3 or more for their mitral regurgitation, that valve needs to be followed closer and is considered &#8220;moderate&#8221;.\u00a0 Any form of mitral regurgitation that is rated 4 or above will most likely need to be fixed and is considered &#8220;severe&#8221;.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Gerdisch advises patients to be their own advocate and ask questions to their doctors about their heart and their heart valves. Dr. Gerdisch states, &#8220;I think people have to be their own advocates because doctors are looking at a lot of things, a lot of reports, and sometimes they don\u2019t have time to really ferret through thee details. You shouldn\u2019t be afraid to ask those questions.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Many Thanks to Dr. Gerdisch &amp; Franciscan Health!!<\/h2>\n<p>On behalf of our entire patient community, many thanks to Dr. Gerdisch for sharing his clinical experience and research with our community!\u00a0 Also, many thanks to the Franciscan Health team for taking such great care of heart valve patients.<\/p>\n<p>Related links:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/minimally-invasive-mitral-repair\/\">Surgeon Insights: Minimally-Invasive Mitral Valve Repair Surgery<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/rapid-recovery-protocol\/\">Top 5 Facts About Dr. Gerdisch&#8217;s Rapid Recovery Protocol<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Marc-Gerdisch-Indianapolis-Indiana.php\">See 120 Patient Reviews for Dr. Gerdisch<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Keep on tickin!<br \/>\nAdam<\/p>\n<p>P.S. For the hearing impaired members of our community, I have provided a written transcript of the video with Dr. Gerdisch below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"cms.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"class_list":["post-2058","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-mitral-regurgitation"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2058"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3775,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2058\/revisions\/3775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}