{"id":754,"date":"2021-03-01T23:32:57","date_gmt":"2021-03-01T23:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/?page_id=754"},"modified":"2023-09-27T18:42:56","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T18:42:56","slug":"early-surgery-asymptomatic-mitral-regurgitation","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/early-surgery-asymptomatic-mitral-regurgitation\/","title":{"rendered":"Patient Research Alert: Is Early Surgery Recommended for Asymptomatic Mitral Regurgitation?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most common questions I get from asymptomatic patients who have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/mitral-valve-regurgitation-symptoms-leaking.php\">severe mitral regurgitation<\/a> is, &#8220;I feel fine. I&#8217;m not tired. I have no chest pain, no palpitations, and no leg swelling. So, why is my cardiologist and surgeon recommending surgery now?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>To answer this very important question, I just interviewed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Patrick-McCarthy-Chicago-Illinois.php\">Dr. Patrick McCarthy<\/a>, the Chief of Cardiac Surgery at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/hospital\/northwestern-memorial-valve-program\">Northwestern Medicine<\/a>, who recently published a new research paper, <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/33419544\/\">&#8220;Asymptomatic Degenerative Mitral Regurgitation Repair: Validating Guidelines for Early Intervention&#8221;<\/a>. Watch this video to learn the key findings from Dr. McCarthy&#8217;s research.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/laKsn2KErD8\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Key Learnings from Dr. McCarthy&#8217;s New Research<\/h2>\n<p>In this video interview, Dr. McCarthy shared several important points that I wanted to jot down for patients in our community to consider:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Mitral valve regurgitation is an &#8220;insidious&#8221; disease that can cause irreversible cardiac damage prior to the onset of symptoms.<\/li>\n<li>If a patient &#8220;waits too long&#8221; to undergo treatment, the heart can get weaken. As Dr. McCarthy states, &#8220;The problem is that sometimes patients can wait too long. While waiting, the heart may get weaker.\u00a0The heart is working overtime because blood is going back-and-forth. With every heartbeat, the heart enlarges and gets weaker.<\/li>\n<li>The ACC\/AHA Guidelines for the Management of Valve Disease suggest that some patients should have surgery even when they do not have symptoms.<\/li>\n<li>The research paper evaluated 500 patients that did not have symptoms and underwent mitral valve repair surgery.<\/li>\n<li>The risk of mitral valve repair surgery at Northwestern Medicine is extremely low.\u00a0 At 30 days after surgery, patient survival was one hundred percent (100%).<\/li>\n<li>Ten years after mitral valve surgery, no patients (0%) needed a second operation or re-operation.<\/li>\n<li>Mitral valve repair surgery is very durable. After 10 years, only one percent (1%) of patients had more than moderate mitral regurgitation.Dr. McCarthy&#8217;s research revealed several interesting finding for patients with mitral regurgitation who are not symptomatic.<\/li>\n<li>This new research further validated the ACC\/AHA Guidelines for the Management of Valve Disease.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Congratulations to Dr. McCarthy &amp; Northwestern Medicine<\/h2>\n<p>Needless to say, the surgical outcomes for asymptomatic mitral regurgitation patients presented in this research is amazing.<\/p>\n<p>I could be wrong&#8230;\u00a0 But, I think these outcomes could be the best 10-year results ever published.<\/p>\n<p>For these reasons, on behalf of our patient community, I&#8217;d like to extend a big-time &#8220;Congratulations!!!&#8221; to Dr. McCarthy and his entire team at Northwestern Medicine.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/Images\/northwestern-medicine-bluhm-heart-team-6.jpg\" alt=\"Northwestern Medicine\" width=\"675\" height=\"291\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>What Does This New Research Mean for Patients?<\/h2>\n<p>As COVID-19 continues, some patients are unfortunately delaying surgery which is leading to health emergencies including heart attacks and stroke, according to the American Heart Association.\u00a0 As we shared in our new post, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/covid-5-facts-day\/\">&#8220;Top 5 Facts for Managing Heart Valve Disease Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic&#8221;<\/a>, patients are getting excellent surgical results during the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>That fact, combined with Dr. McCarthy&#8217;s new research about early interventions for asymptomatic mitral regurgitation, should encourage patients to consider the advantages of proceeding with heart valve surgery prior to the onset of symptoms.<\/p>\n<p>Related Articles:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Patrick-McCarthy-Chicago-Illinois.php\">See 150+ Patient Reviews for Dr. Patrick McCarthy<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Keep on tickin!<br \/>\nAdam<\/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":[12],"class_list":["post-754","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-mitral-regurgitation"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/754","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=754"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3852,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/754\/revisions\/3852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}