{"id":3419,"date":"2023-07-18T19:09:49","date_gmt":"2023-07-18T19:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/?page_id=3419"},"modified":"2023-09-27T13:22:34","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T13:22:34","slug":"coronary-artery-disease-dr-husam-balkhy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/coronary-artery-disease-dr-husam-balkhy\/","title":{"rendered":"Coronary Artery Disease &#038; Heart Valve Disorders: What Should Patients Know?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to the National Library of Medicine, up to 27% of patients with severe heart valve disorders also suffer from coronary artery disease.\u00a0 Coronary artery disease is a build-up of plaque in the walls of the arteries that supply blood to the heart. Patients with coronary artery disease may experience chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue and heart attack. It is for this reason that many patients undergo cardiac catheterization (angiogram) prior to heart valve surgery to detect coronary artery disease.<\/p>\n<p>To learn more about the detection and treatment of coronary artery disease, we recently met with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Husam-Balkhy-Chicago-Illinois.php\">Dr. Husam Balkhy<\/a>, Director of Robotic and Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery at the University of Chicago Medicine.\u00a0 Dr. Balkhy is a minimally-invasive specialist who has performed thousands of cardiac procedures and Dr. Balkhy has successfully treated over 50 members of the HeartValveSurgery.com community including Stacy Dubin, Gary Lark and Margaret Caravello.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/C81QPIh76mo\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Key Learnings About Coronary Artery Disease &amp; Heart Valve Disorders<\/h2>\n<p>Here are key insights shared by Dr. Balkhy during our interview:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Coronary artery disease is commonly diagnosed during pre-operative testing for heart valve surgery patients. &#8220;Many patients get diagnosed while undergoing the pre-operative workup for their valve therapy,&#8221; states Dr. Balkhy. &#8220;Say somebody comes in with severe aortic stenosis and they are embarking on having an operation for their aortic valve. They will get a workup which includes a coronary angiogram. Sometimes that coronary angiogram will show that they have a blockage in one or more of the coronary arteries.&#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\/coronary-angiogram-picture.jpg\" alt=\"Cardiac Catheterization (Angiogram)\" width=\"400\" height=\"380\" \/>Cardiac Catheterization (Coronary Angiogram)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cardiac surgeons can perform &#8216;concomitant procedures&#8217; to treat heart valve disorders and coronary artery disease during the same operation. &#8220;Traditionally, that has triggered a combined heart valve and coronary operation. If it&#8217;s the aortic valve, that usually entails an aortic valve replacement and coronary bypass. If it&#8217;s a mitral valve, it can be a mitral valve repair and\/or replacement and a coronary bypass procedure.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>The University of Chicago Medicine has adopted a heart-team approach to evaluate the best possible treatment for patients. Dr. Balkhy states, &#8220;We obviously have adopted the heart team concept. We have meetings at least once a week about all the patients that present for their cardiac care.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>There are many different treatments that Dr. Balkhy will use for the treatment of coronary artery disease and heart valve disorders including coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), minimally-invasive robotic-assisted procedures, heart valve reconstruction techniques, non-invasive transcatheter therapies (e.g. TAVR), and combined totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass (TECAB) and TAVR.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3425 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/totally-endoscopic-coronary-artery-bypass.jpeg\" alt=\"Totally Endoscopic Coronary Artery Bypass\" width=\"684\" height=\"385\" \/>Comparison of Open Heart Surgery to TECAB<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To determine the best treatment for each patient, Dr. Balkhy evaluates the patient&#8217;s health and risk factors. &#8220;We look at the patient, their frailty, obviously their age, their risk factors, and we look at all the things we have to offer in our toolbox and try to do what is best for them,&#8221; states Dr. Balkhy.<\/li>\n<li>Robotic mitral valve repair surgery is a core part of Dr. Balkhy&#8217;s practice. &#8220;We&#8217;re very well-known for our robotic program.\u00a0 The majority of patients that come to my practice are looking for a sternal-sparing operation or procedure,&#8221; states Dr. Balkhy.\u00a0 &#8220;The patients are coming to me saying okay, I have this and this. Can you still keep my sternum intact? I&#8217;m a big believer that keeping the sternum intact is a priority It may not be the highest priority in every patient but it is a priority.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3426 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/husam-balkhy-md-robot-heart-surgery.jpeg\" alt=\"Dr. Balkhy Performing Robot Heart Surgery\" width=\"640\" height=\"340\" \/>Dr. Balkhy Performing Robot-Assisted Mitral Valve Repair<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The long-term outcomes for heart valve patients with coronary artery disease are favorable. &#8220;If we&#8217;re doing a TECAB and a TAVR combo, we know the long-term outcomes of a TAVR in the appropriate patients are great. We know the long-term outcomes of a TECAB isolated in our hands \u2013 we been doing it for 15 years \u2013 are also great. So, there&#8217;s no reason why those two things together should not also be great,&#8221; states Dr. Balkhy.\u00a0 &#8220;Mitral valve repair, we&#8217;ve been doing it robotically for 15 years. We know the results of that, and so when we combine that with a PCI to an on-LED target, we know that those outcomes separately are fine. Then when you combine them, they should also be fine.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Thanks Dr. Balkhy and University of Chicago Medicine!<\/h2>\n<p>On behalf of our patient community, many thanks to Dr. Husam Balkhy for sharing his clinical experience and research about coronary artery disease and heart valve disorders!\u00a0 Also, many thanks to University of Chicago Medicine 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\/surgeons\/dr-Husam-Balkhy-Chicago-Illinois.php\">See 50+ Patient Reviews for Dr. Balkhy<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uchicagomedicine.org\/forefront\/heart-and-vascular-articles\/husam-balkhys-relentless-quest-for-robotic-heart-surgery\">Dr. Husam Balkhy: A Relentless Quest to Make Heart Surgery Less Invasive<\/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 this interview 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":[2],"class_list":["post-3419","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-adams-updates"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3419","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=3419"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3441,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3419\/revisions\/3441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}