{"id":5345,"date":"2025-04-29T12:24:14","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T12:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/?page_id=5345"},"modified":"2025-05-15T00:58:05","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T00:58:05","slug":"evolution-ross-procedure-program","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/evolution-ross-procedure-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Surgeon Q&#038;A: Evolution of a Ross Procedure Program"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are approximately 85,000 aortic valve replacement (AVR) surgeries every year in the United States. Most are performed surgically or with the less invasive transcatheter approach. Only a small percentage of AVR surgeries are done using the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/ross-procedure-aortic-disease\">Ross Procedure<\/a>, and for good reason.\u00a0The Ross operation, also known as the &#8220;Switch Procedure&#8221;, is a highly technical operation requiring surgeons to perform it regularly throughout the year. Given its complexity, it can take years for cardiac centers to build a successful Ross Procedure program.<\/p>\n<p>We recently met with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Christopher-Burke-Seattle-Washington.php\">Dr. Christopher Burke,<\/a> a leading aortic valve surgeon at UW Medicine Heart Institute in Seattle, Washington, who has developed a successful Ross Procedure program. He was able to share how he was able to build and evolve the program at UW Medicine.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HcwaK0VqwgU?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><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><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<h2>Key Learnings About the Evolution of a Ross Procedure Program<\/h2>\n<p>Here are several important insights shared by Dr. Burke:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Ross Procedure is a very advanced type of aortic valve replacement. \u201cThe Ross Procedure is probably the most technically demanding operation that most adult aortic surgeons will do,\u201d said Dr. Burke. \u201cIt takes time to learn how to do it effectively.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>A healthy Ross Procedure program starts with a busy heart valve program. \u201cIt takes time to build a Ross Procedure program,\u201d stated Dr. Burke. He explained that having a healthy program starts with having a busy program with the requisite heart valve patients, including younger patients, often with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/bicuspid-aortic-valve-symptoms.php\">bicuspid aortic valves<\/a>. \u201cYou have to have a certain number of patients coming through to have a viable program because this operation is ineffective when trying to do a couple a year. It\u2019s just not enough volume to develop and maintain the skill set.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5348 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/bicuspid-aortic-valve-drawing.jpg\" alt=\"Bicuspid Aortic Valve Drawing\" width=\"650\" height=\"363\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A great multidisciplinary team is critical to success.<strong> \u201c<\/strong>It truly does take a village to be successful here,\u201d said Dr. Burke. \u201cIt was just recognition of how important the team is. There\u2019s perioperative, things that come with blood pressure control, and ensuring that patients get proper echocardiogram surveillance. Obviously, the technical surgical component is very important. But there\u2019s also the Intensive Care Unit and everything in between. The recognition of the team concept and structure has been critically important.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Tracking outcomes and collaborating with other Ross Centers has been essential. \u201cProbably the biggest thing as we move on is that we\u2019re very self-critical, and we follow closely how things are going,\u201d Dr. Burke explained. \u201cI\u2019ve appreciated the power of collaborating with other Ross Centers, and we\u2019re proud to be a founding member of the North American Ross Consortium (NARC), which is a unique prospective database where we\u2019re tracking outcomes and learning more because we\u2019re all getting better. We\u2019re all on this journey together as surgeons, and the more we can learn from each other will only make us stronger as a program.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Thanks Dr. Burke and UW Medicine!<\/h2>\n<p>On behalf of prior and future Ross Procedure patients, thanks to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Christopher-Burke-Seattle-Washington.php\">Dr. Christopher Burke<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/hospital\/uw-medicine\">UW Medicine<\/a> team in Seattle, Washington, for the time and personal commitment to see this program through.<\/p>\n<p>Related Links:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/ross-procedure-aortic-disease\">The Ross Procedure: An Advanced Type of Aortic Valve Replacement<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/ross-procedure-dr-chris-burke\/\">Ross Procedure Reloaded: What Should Patients Know?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2024\/04\/28\/ross-procedure-pateint-christopher-burke-me\/\">Heart Warrior: Patient Video Celebrates the Ross Procedure and Dr. Christopher Burke<\/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, we have posted the video transcript 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":[16],"class_list":["post-5345","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-ross-procedure"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5345","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=5345"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5762,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5345\/revisions\/5762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}