{"id":404,"date":"2020-10-02T17:53:30","date_gmt":"2020-10-02T17:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/?page_id=404"},"modified":"2025-06-03T22:11:02","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T22:11:02","slug":"bicuspid-aortic-valve-aneurysm-treatment","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/bicuspid-aortic-valve-aneurysm-treatment\/","title":{"rendered":"Surgeon Q&#038;A: Treating Bicuspid Aortic Valves &#038; Aortic Aneurysms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bicuspid aortic valves are the most common form of congenital heart disease.\u00a0 According to reports, between 1% to 2% of the general population have a bicuspid aortic valve.<\/p>\n<p>While normal aortic valves have three heart valve leaflets.\u00a0 A bicuspid aortic valve has just two leaflets.\u00a0 \u00a0During pregnancy, two of the aortic valve leaflets fuse together.\u00a0 Over time, a bicuspid aortic valve may cause aortic stenosis and\/or aortic regurgitation.\u00a0 In addition, bicuspid aortic valves are associated with aortic aneurysms, a dangerous form of heart disease that can unexpectedly rupture the aorta.\u00a0 The aorta is the main artery that carries blood from your heart to the rest of your body.<\/p>\n<p>To answer your questions about bicuspid aortic valves, aortic aneurysms and different treatment options, I interviewed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-William-Brinkman-Plano-Texas.php\">Dr. William Brinkman<\/a>, a leading heart surgeon and the Director of the Thoracic Aortic Clinic at Baylor, Scott &amp; White The Heart Hospital &#8211; Plano.\u00a0 As many of you know, Dr. Brinkman has successfully treated many patients in our community including John Martin, Mark Mobley and Randy Neal.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pKHyvzuv2G0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Key Facts About Bicuspid Aortic Valve Treatment<\/h2>\n<p>Dr. Brinkman shared several great points about bicuspid aortic valve treatment.\u00a0 Here are some of the highlights I jotted down:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bicuspid aortic valves are genetic although a single a single gene is not responsible for the defect, it is multi-factorial.<\/li>\n<li>Patients with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/bicuspid-aortic-valve-symptoms.php\">bicuspid aortic valves<\/a> can be asymptomatic, without symptoms, while other patients may experience shortness of breath, fatigue, chest pain and abnormal heart rhythms.<\/li>\n<li>Bicuspid aortic valves can impact people differently at various stages of life &#8211; from children to the elderly.<\/li>\n<li>This cardiac condition can be fatal &#8211; especially when it causes aortic stenosis.<\/li>\n<li>Bicuspid aortic valves are related to aortic aneurysm given their embryology.\u00a0 There is debate as to whether a BAV causes an aneurysm or whether an aneurysm causes a BAV. Risks associated with aortic aneurysms include dissection and, unfortunately, death.\u00a0 John Ritter, the comedian, had a bicuspid aortic valve and an aortic aneurysm that dissected which took his life.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Brinkman uses several different options to treat bicuspid aortic valves depending on the underlying disorder (e.g. aortic stenosis, aortic regurgitation and the presence of an aneurysm). Common treatment options that Dr. Brinkman use including aortic valve replacement, aortic valve repair, the David Procedure, the Ross Procedure and transcatheter aortic valve replacement for re-operations.<\/li>\n<li>If an aortic valve is leaking, Dr. Brinkman can perform an aortic valve repair.<\/li>\n<li>A tight &#8220;coaptation&#8221; of leaflets is the goal of heart valve repairs which can result in long-term durability for patients without re-operation.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Brinkman and his team, including Dr. William Ryan, have performed nearly 300 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/ross-procedure.php\">Ross Procedures<\/a> for bicuspid aortic valve patients that (i) do not want to be on Coumadin, (ii) are younger, (iii) have an active lifestyle and (iv) may have the opportunity for a transcatheter valve replacement if the aortic or pulmonary valve fails in the future.<\/li>\n<li>To treat aneurysms of the ascending aorta, Dr. Brinkman is primarily interested in the size of the aneurysm and the current condition of the aortic valve.\u00a0 After that assessment is complete, Dr. Brinkman may complete a Bentall Procedure, a Ross Procedure, or a valve-sparing procedure.\u00a0 If possible, Dr. Brinkman always tries to preserve the patient&#8217;s tissue when treating bicuspid aortic valves if patient has an aneurysm.<\/li>\n<li>Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) can be used for more complex procedures including a Bentall procedure, a Ross Procedure, or a David Procedure.\u00a0 The size of the valve is an important consideration when considering a <a href=\"http:\/\/heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/transcatheter-valve-in-valve-procedure\/\">TAVR &#8220;Valve-in-Valve&#8221; re-operation<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Brinkman&#8217;s advice to patients is to find a specialist in bicuspid aortic valve and aneurysms.\u00a0 It&#8217;s important to identify a cardiologist or surgeon who is very knowledgable about the guidelines for treating these conditions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Thanks Dr. Brinkman!!!<\/h2>\n<p>On behalf of our entire community, thanks so much to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-William-Brinkman-Plano-Texas.php\">Dr. Brinkman<\/a> for sharing his clinical experience and research with our community.\u00a0 I would also like to thank the entire team at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/hospital\/the-heart-hospital-baylor-plano\">Baylor, Scott &amp; White The Heart Hospital &#8211; Plano<\/a> for their support and care of the patients in our community.<\/p>\n<p>Related Link:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/bicuspid-aortic-valve-gradients-aneurysms\/\">Ask Dr. Brinkman: Bicuspid Aortic Valve Gradients and Aortic Aneurysms<\/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 this video 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":[9],"class_list":["post-404","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-bicuspid-aortic-valve"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/404","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=404"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5875,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/404\/revisions\/5875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}