{"id":2426,"date":"2022-07-25T18:16:42","date_gmt":"2022-07-25T18:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/?page_id=2426"},"modified":"2025-06-06T14:57:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T14:57:16","slug":"dilated-aortic-root-progression","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/dilated-aortic-root-progression\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Q&#038;A: &#8220;Will My Dilated Aortic Root Progress to Needing Surgery?&#8221; asks Desmond"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I just received a great video question from Desmond in Ireland about the progression of dilated aortic roots.\u00a0 In his video question, Desmond asks, &#8220;Is there a chance that the progression of my dilated aortic root will stop and never need surgery in the future?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>To answer Desmond&#8217;s question, I connected with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Luis-Castro-Larkspur-California.php\">Dr. Luis Castro<\/a> a leading cardiac surgeon at MarinHealth Heart and Vascular Institute in Marin County, California.\u00a0 During his career, Dr. Castro has performed over 5,000 cardiac procedures and more than 3,000 heart valve operations.\u00a0 In the HeartValveSurgery.com community, Dr. Castro has successfully treated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Luis-Castro-Larkspur-California.php\">over 200 patients<\/a> including Shelly Gould and James Hoffman.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fdNepk1m3ec\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Key Insights About Dilated Aortic Roots<\/h2>\n<p>Here are important insights from Dr. Castro about dilated aortic root progression and surgery:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There are many factors that can determine whether-or-not a dilated aortic root may progress and require surgery.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2432\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/Dr-Luis-Castro-Patient-Desmond.jpg\" alt=\"Dr. Luis Castro with Patient\" width=\"600\" height=\"314\" \/><br \/>\nDr. Luis Castro with Desmond Reynolds (Patient)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>According to Dr. Castro, the size of the dilated aortic root over time is a key consideration. Dr. Castro states, &#8220;It is important to know that you do have an aneurysm at the base of your heart that is 4.5 centimeters. What we don&#8217;t know is what it was like five years ago. It is possible that you&#8217;ve had a fairly stable, somewhat enlarged aorta for some time. That may never change in dimension. It&#8217;s going to be very important for you to follow up with imaging in 6 to 12 months or whenever is recommended by your physician.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Patient age can be a critical factor in evaluating the need for aortic root surgery. Dr. Castro states, &#8220;The younger you are, definitely the more likely it is that these aneurysms, they don&#8217;t get smaller. They get larger with time. If you were 75 years old, it might be something that you could live with to get you to 90. We got to look at the long-term plan here.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Patient size &#8211; height and weight &#8211; is another important factor to consider specific to the progression of dilation aortic root aneurysms. For example, larger patients will have larger aortic roots.<\/li>\n<li>There are patient risks and potential life-threatening situations that may occur if a dilated aortic root progresses to the point of rupture, tear or dissection. &#8220;We have to be very careful with how we&#8217;re going to watch these aneurysms,&#8221; states Dr. Castro. &#8220;We want to make sure that we can safely address them when they get too large. That&#8217;s usually about 5 to 5.5 centimeters in diameters when they start posing a risk of actually rupturing or turning from the inside.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2431 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/Aortic-Valve-Diagram-Luis-Castro.jpg\" alt=\"Aortic Valve Disease &amp; Aneurysms\" width=\"650\" height=\"365\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There is a known association between aortic aneurysms and aortic valve disease. Patients with aortic aneurysms should get regular echocardiogram to evaluate the health and\/or disease of the aortic valve.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Many Thanks to Dr. Castro!<\/h2>\n<p>On behalf of our patient community, many thanks to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Luis-Castro-Larkspur-California.php\">Dr. Luis Castro<\/a> for sharing his clinical experiences and research specific to dilated aortic root aneurysms. We also want to thank his entire for taking such great care of our patients with heart valve disease.<\/p>\n<p>Keep on tickin!<br \/>\nAdam<\/p>\n<p>P.S. For the deaf and hard of hearing members of our community, I have provided a written transcript of my interview with Dr. Castro 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":[3],"class_list":["post-2426","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-aneurysms"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2426","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=2426"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5880,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2426\/revisions\/5880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}