{"id":5320,"date":"2025-03-27T16:26:06","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T16:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/?page_id=5320"},"modified":"2025-04-23T13:26:28","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T13:26:28","slug":"choose-mitral-valve-surgeon-hospital","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/choose-mitral-valve-surgeon-hospital\/","title":{"rendered":"Mitral Valve Surgery: How To Choose Your Surgeon &#038; Hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When patients find out that their mitral valve needs to be repaired or replaced, they may experience a wide range of thoughts and emotions. The amount of information that patients receive in a short period, along with a steep learning curve to understand their disease, can be overwhelming. Patients and their care partners may need to make several decisions, sometimes within a short timeframe, depending on the severity of their mitral valve defect.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5323 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/Images\/mitral-valve-arrow-anatomy.jpg\" alt=\"mitral valve position in heart\" width=\"650\" height=\"346\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the two most consequential decisions they will make are \u201cWho will perform the surgery?\u201d and \u201cWhere the mitral valve procedure be done?\u201d An experienced, multidisciplinary surgical team at a center of excellence is integral to a successful surgery along with a proper plan to manage their mitral valve disease for years to follow.<\/p>\n<p>But where should patients start?<\/p>\n<p>To help our mitral valve patients learn more about choosing a surgical program that will fit their needs and to start making these crucial decisions, we recently met with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Dominic-Emerson-Los+Angeles-California.php\">Dr. Dominic Emerson<\/a>, the Director of Robotic Cardiac Surgery at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. Mitral valve surgery is one of Dr. Emerson\u2019s specialties. \u00a0So, we were thrilled to have Dr. Emerson offer his valuable insights.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xJ9vQpF-mTE?rel=0?si=JASDnxPDFz-RfA1U\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Key Learnings About Mitral Valve Surgeons and Hospitals<\/h2>\n<p>Here are the important insights shared by Dr. Emerson during our interview:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There are many factors to consider when selecting a mitral valve surgeon. \u201cThere are a lot of different factors that go into it,\u201d he said. \u201cChoosing a mitral valve program not only depends on your surgeon but on the institution and the team as a whole. You want to go to a place where you\u2019ll be comfortable and where providers can take good care of you as a whole person, and that can take on a lot of different forms depending on the pathology you\u2019re treating.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5326 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/dr-emerson-mitral-surgeon-selection-criteria-2.jpg\" alt=\"Dr. Emerson's Mitral Valve Surgeon Selection Tips\" width=\"650\" height=\"364\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Patients with mitral regurgitation, a leaking heart valve, should seek a care team that specializes in mitral valve repair. \u201cOne thing specific to the mitral valve that we know is that a good repair is vastly better than any replacement you could ever have. I think that\u2019s very important to think of when you\u2019re choosing a cardiac center,\u201d stated Dr. Emerson.<\/li>\n<li>There are Mitral Valve Centers of Excellence that patients may want to contact. \u201cYou want to go to a center with a good track record of providing high-quality repairs and a very high repair rate.\u201d He noted that the centers of excellence with successful programs can be found through the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mitralfoundation.org\/reference-center-award\">Mitral Valve Repair Reference Center Award Program<\/a>. The program designates centers across the United States, Cedars-Sinai being one of them, with at least a 95 percent chance of repair for patients with degenerative mitral valve disease.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5327 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/repair-over-replacement-mvs.jpg\" alt=\"Why Mitral Valve Repair is Superior to Replacement\" width=\"650\" height=\"361\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Emerson recognized that patients may want to travel for a mitral valve repair at a Mitral Valve Center of Excellence. \u201cI think it is important to weigh the distance from your family and normal surroundings to a leading mitral valve center.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>There are different approaches to accessing the mitral valve including sternotomy, minimally-invasive and robot-assisted. \u201cAnother thing I would think of is the surgical approach,\u201d said Dr. Emerson. \u201cAs a robotic cardiac surgeon, I\u2019m very invested in that technology, and I think that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/robotic-mitral-valve-surgery\">robotic cardiac surgery<\/a> not only provides a surgeon the ability to treat the valve better, but I think there are better repair rates with robotic cardiac surgery. Also, it\u2019s a little faster recovery for patients. It\u2019s a smaller incision and a little easier on the patient. So, that would factor heavily into where I would choose to have my valve done.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Emerson also added that robotic cardiac surgery is a limited technology. \u201cNot everybody is doing robotic mitral valve repair &#8211; maybe a hundred centers in the United States are currently doing it,\u201d he said. But, I think the advantages that approach offers would definitely factor into my decision-making.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Thanks Dr. Emerson and Cedars-Sinai!<\/h2>\n<p>On behalf of everyone in the HeartValveSurgery.com community, thank you, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Dominic-Emerson-Los+Angeles-California.php\">Dr. Emerson<\/a>, for helping our mitral valve patients make these important decisions when planning their surgery. And thanks to Cedars-Sinai\u00a0for caring for our heart valve patients!<\/p>\n<p>Related links:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/videos\/minimally-invasive\">Patient Webinar: Minimally-Invasive Heart Valve Surgery with Dr. Emerson<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/robotic-mitral-valve-surgery\">New Robotic Mitral Valve Surgery Patient Education Center<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/videos\/mitral-recovery\">Surgeon Q &amp; A: The Recovery from Mitral Valve Surgery<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Keep on tickin,<\/p>\n<p>Adam<\/p>\n<p>P.S. For the deaf and hard-of-hearing members of our patient community, we have provided a written transcript of our interview with Dr. Emerson below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"cms.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"class_list":["post-5320","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-surgeons-clinics"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5320","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5320"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5528,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5320\/revisions\/5528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}