{"id":3320,"date":"2023-06-08T12:30:57","date_gmt":"2023-06-08T12:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/?page_id=3320"},"modified":"2023-09-27T18:52:28","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T18:52:28","slug":"rapid-recovery-protocol-2-marc-gerdisch-dr","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/rapid-recovery-protocol-2-marc-gerdisch-dr\/","title":{"rendered":"Rapid Recovery Protocol 2.0: What Should Heart Surgery Patients Know?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Something fascinating is happening in cardiac surgery.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to new approaches in pre- and post-operative care, patient recovery processes are accelerating. In fact, a convergence in recovery benefits are transitioning from minimally-invasive to traditional open-heart procedures.<\/p>\n<p>To learn more, we interviewed <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 extraordinary career, Dr. Gerdisch has performed over 6,000 cardiac procedures and successfully treated more than 100 patients in our community.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BxDtIONg9Hc?rel=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2>Key Learnings About Rapid Recovery 2.0<\/h2>\n<p>Here are key learnings from Dr. Gerdisch specific to Rapid Recovery Protocol 2.0:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dr. Gerdisch and his team developed a unique program to help restore patient quality-of-life after heart surgery. Dr. Gerdisch states, &#8220;We started a very aggressive program of patient recovery that expedited getting out of the hospital, getting back to your life, and being fully active.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/profileImages\/306_129_173.jpg\" alt=\"Dr. Marc Gerdisch\" width=\"129\" height=\"173\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Marc-Gerdisch-Indianapolis-Indiana.php\">Dr. Marc Gerdisch<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Initially, the recovery program focused on patients who underwent minimally-invasive therapies. However, Dr. Gerdisch felt there was a significant opportunity to transfer the learnings from minimally-invasive surgery to open-heart procedures.<\/li>\n<li>A critical component of the Rapid Recovery Protocol 2.0 is the use of rigid sternal fixation. Dr. Gerdisch states, &#8220;The first thing we did, that foundational building block, was to move toward everyone having rigid plate fixation of the sternum. Everybody has an orthopedic repair of the bone, the divided bone, so that we take the bone out of the equation.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/Images\/sternalock-blu-chest-plate-healing.jpg\" alt=\"Rigid Sternal Fixation\" width=\"600\" height=\"314\" \/>Rigid Sternal Fixation<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When patients get rigid sternal fixation, their pain levels and their use of narcotics dramatically decrease. &#8220;We saw patient pain go way down, to the point where we reduced the use of opioids by 96 percent,&#8221; states Dr. Gerdisch.<\/li>\n<li>With less pain and less medication, Dr. Gerdisch can extubate patients while in the operating room. &#8220;More and more patients come out of the operating room, no matter what the approach is, already off the ventilator,&#8221; states Dr. Gerdisch. &#8220;They\u2019re comfortable. They can be off the ventilator. They can breathe.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Patients get out of bed and start walking shortly after surgery under the Rapid Recovery Protocol 2.0. Doctor Gerdisch states, &#8220;Within four hours, the patient gets up out of bed. What it does is it lets them recognize they have not been disabled by the operation. Next day, up in the morning, nobody gets back in bed all day; they\u2019re up walking. All that is achieved not only because we\u2019ve done rigid sternal fixation and because we\u2019ve decreased the need for those medications.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3337 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/erector-spinae-block-cryoanalgesia.jpg\" alt=\"Erector Spinae Blog - Cryoanalgesia\" width=\"650\" height=\"364\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To further minimize pain, patients receive an erector spinae block. As a result, patients can use their arms more freely, enabling patients to lift items and drive sooner. Doctor Gerdisch states, &#8220;Day after surgery, up to 15 pounds in each arm. Basically, over the next few weeks we let you get up to 25 pounds in each arm. The other thing that we recognized was that with that mobility and the lack of need of those medications that once they leave the hospital, they should be able to drive.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Under the Rapid Recovery Protocol 2.0, select patients can drive their cars five days after surgery if they are not taking any medications.<\/li>\n<li>To further enhance the Rapid Recovery Protocol 2.0, Dr. Gerdisch has implemented several optimizations including anemia protocols, smoking cessation support, exercise protocols, resistive breathing, nutrition support (e.g. carbohydrate loading, amino acids) and respiration therapy.<\/li>\n<li>Use of extended care facilities for elderly, frail and complex patients has significantly decreased under the Rapid Recovery Protocol 2.0 from 30% to 10%. &#8220;The extended care facilities are wonderful places, wonderful people staffing them, working for those patients, taking care of them, doing their rehab,&#8221; states Dr. Gerdisch.\u00a0 &#8220;But, people want to go home.\u00a0 So, we\u2019ve gone from 30% of patients, a complex patient population, going to some type of extended care facility, discharged to some type of rehab, down to less than 10%.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Gerdisch believes that the Rapid Recovery Protocol 2.0 has created a convergence between minimally-invasive and open chest surgery patients. &#8220;What we\u2019ve achieved over the last several years really is a convergence between our minimally invasive surgery patients and our open chest surgery patients so that the experience is very similar,&#8221; states Dr. Gerdisch.\u00a0 &#8220;Whether they\u2019re having a little incision or a full incision, the experience is very close to the same with rapid recovery and restoration of full activity.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>The Impact of Rapid Recovery Protocol 2.0?<\/h2>\n<p>Here is a quick video that shows the results of the Rapid Recovery Protocol 2.0 for four of Dr. Gerdisch&#8217;s cardiac surgery patients.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jZ3x1dfS1o0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\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 experiences 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\/different-faces-mitral-valve-disease\/\">Dr. Gerdisch Interview: The Different Faces of Mitral Valve Disease<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Marc-Gerdisch-Indianapolis-Indiana.php\">See 100+ Patient Reviews for Dr. Gerdisch<\/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 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":[15],"class_list":["post-3320","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-recovery"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3320","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=3320"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3861,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3320\/revisions\/3861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}