{"id":2589,"date":"2022-09-16T00:07:10","date_gmt":"2022-09-16T00:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/?page_id=2589"},"modified":"2023-09-27T20:15:39","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T20:15:39","slug":"unicuspid-aortic-valves","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/unicuspid-aortic-valves\/","title":{"rendered":"Unicuspid Aortic Valves: What Should Patients Know?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to the American Heart Association, unicuspid aortic valves are a rare disease in the general population. However, in our community, I have spoke with many patients who needed surgery due to these defective, one-leaflet valves that may cause stenosis and\/or regurgitation. Normal aortic valves have three leaflets.<\/p>\n<p>I recently received several important questions from Leslie, who asked me, &#8220;Hi Adam &#8211; What can you tell me about unicuspid aortic valves? How are they treated? Are they genetic? If so, should I have my family screened?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>To provide Leslie an expert opinion, I was fortunate to interview <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Samuel-Pollock-Louisville-Kentucky.php\">Dr. Samuel Pollock<\/a>, a leading cardiac surgeon at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/hospital\/baptist-health-louisville\">Baptist Health Louisville<\/a> in Kentucky. During his 25-year career, Dr. Pollock has performed over 12,000 cardiac procedures with more than 4,000 operations involving heart valve repair or replacement procedures.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PdMKPAoMGVc\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Key Learnings About Unicuspid Aortic Valves<\/h2>\n<p>Here are the important points I learned during my interview with Dr. Pollock:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Unicuspid aortic valves are not common.\u00a0 A unicuspid aortic valve has only one leaflet and often looks like a &#8220;volcano&#8221;, according to Dr. Pollock.\u00a0 Patients with malformed aortic valves more commonly have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/bicuspid-aortic-valve-symptoms.php\">bicuspid aortic valves<\/a> which have two leaflets. A normal aortic valve has three leaflets to manage blood flow through the heart.<\/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\/239_129_172.jpg\" alt=\"Dr. Samuel Pollock\" width=\"129\" height=\"172\" \/>Dr. Samuel Pollock (Heart Surgeon)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The detection of unicuspid aortic valves often occurs in newborns which may lead to treatment shortly after birth. &#8220;Most babies with unicuspid aortic valves are very ill,&#8221; states Dr. Pollock.\u00a0 &#8220;They&#8217;re treated in the first few days of life with a balloon valvotomy which is performed by a pediatric cardiologist. They put a balloon through the aortic valve and expand it. Sometimes, patients need an open valvotomy, which is a procedure done with a heart-lung machine where the valve is opened with a knife.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><picture><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/Images\/unicuspid-aortic-heart-valve.jpg\" alt=\"Unicuspid Aortic Heart Valve Extracted\" width=\"432\" height=\"162\" \/><\/picture><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">Unicuspid Aortic Valves \u2013 Calcified and Narrowed<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Children who undergo aortic valve treatment early in life often require an aortic valve replacement as they age. However, physicians often wait to perform an aortic valve replacement until the patient reaches an age between 18 and 21 years. &#8220;We don&#8217;t like to replace valves in younger children because they [the valves] don&#8217;t grow with the child,&#8221; states Dr. Pollock. &#8220;We like to wait until they&#8217;re 18 to 21 years old when the valve structure is almost adult size.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Treatment options for young adults include a tissue valve, a mechanical valve or a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/ross-procedure\/\">Ross Procedure<\/a>. According to Dr. Pollock, the Ross Procedure is the best option for young adults.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2593 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/unicuspid-aortic-valve-removed.jpg\" alt=\"Unicuspid Aortic Valve\" width=\"700\" height=\"446\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2022\/08\/02\/patient-quiz-dr-christopher-burke\/\">Unicuspid Aortic Valve (Source: Andy Dial)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Unicuspid aortic valves are genetic. For that reason, Dr. Pollock recommends valvular screening for all family members.\u00a0 Screening tests including the use of a stethoscope and echocardiogram to detect turbulence across the aortic valve. Another screening tool includes genetic testing for aortic disease in patients with unicuspid and bicuspid valves.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Many Thanks to Dr. Pollock and Baptist Health Louisville<\/h2>\n<p>On behalf of the patients at HeartValveSurgery.com, many thanks to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Samuel-Pollock-Louisville-Kentucky.php\">Dr. Samuel Pollock<\/a> for sharing his clinical experiences and research with our community. We would also like to thank Baptist Health Louisville 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\/heart-surgery-blog\/2022\/08\/02\/patient-quiz-dr-christopher-burke\/\">Andy Gets Ross Procedure for Unicuspid Aortic Valve<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2009\/06\/09\/unicuspid-heart-valve-surgery\/\">Shannon&#8217;s Unicuspid Aortic Valve Discovery<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\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. Pollock 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":[6],"class_list":["post-2589","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-aortic-valve-replacement"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2589","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=2589"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2618,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2589\/revisions\/2618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}