Adam’s Heart Valve Surgery Blog

As Heart Month continues to raise much-needed awareness to heart disease, I’m excited to be in Chicago today for a special celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, Illinois.

Many of you know that Northwestern Medicine has provided extraordinary outcomes for over 700 patients of the HeartValveSurgery.com community. Here is a video I just posted from the party with world-renowned heart valve experts and their patients.

 
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Today, Friday, February 7, you are invited to join our community which is in full support of the “Go Red for Women” campaign.  This wonderful initiative was created to raise awareness to women’s heart disease and unite communities that are fighting for the eradication of heart disease and stroke. As you can see below, heart valve experts from all over the United States are showing their support to fight cardiac disease which accounts for 1 in 3 female deaths every year.

That is Dr. Vaughn Starnes, my surgeon and the Surgeon-in-Chief of Keck Medicine of USC, and Dr. Craig Baker, Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Keck Medicine of USC in Los Angeles, California.

 

 
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[Update: Great news! Our patient webinar, “Advances in Tricuspid Valve Therapy” with Dr. Wilson Szeto and Dr. Paul Fiorilli, was fantastic. Click this link to see a video replay of the webinar or download a free copy of the new “Advances in Tricuspid Valve Therapy” eBook.]

I’m excited to announce that our LIVE and FREE patient education events continue Thursday, January 30th, at 6pm EST, with a special webinar, “Advances in Tricuspid Valve Therapy”. The featured speakers are Dr. Wilson Szeto, the Chief of Cardiac Surgery, and Dr. Paul Fiorilli, the Co-Director of the Transcatheter Heart Valve Program, at Penn Medicine.

 
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I am very excited to announce that Baptist Health South Florida’s Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute just became the newest sponsor of HeartValveSurgery.com.

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It’s been less than 24 hours since Rick Jerzak’s transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) and I just received this update from him.

Rick Jerzak (Heart Valve Patient)

 
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Dear Patients and Friends,

As the use of minimally-invasive transcatheter devices continues to increase, I am getting lots of patient emails asking me, “Who should I go to for TAVR?” and “Which hospitals specialize in TMVR?”. For this reason, I just built a new Interventional Cardiologist Finder for heart valve patients.  Similar to our Surgeon Finder, this tool is powered by your patient reviews.

So… My question to you is, “Would you recommend your interventional cardiologist?”  If so, this is a great opportunity to celebrate your doctor and help future patients.

Click Here to Post Your Review!

Keep on tickin,
Adam

In response to this post about patient outcomes for heart valve reoperations, I received a very interesting question from Ellie about aorta carving and enlargement. In her email, Ellie wrote to me, “Hi Adam – Six months after I had a surgical aortic valve replacement, my medical team told me that the new bovine valve does not fit well.  I am also being told that I need a redo with a possible root enlargement to place a larger tissue valve. What should I know about aortic root carving and enlargement?”

 
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It’s hard to believe.

This coming Saturday, December 21, I will celebrate my 19th anniversary of heart valve surgery. I am so incredibly thankful that I had a successful Ross Procedure performed by Dr. Vaughn Starnes at Keck Medicine of USC in Los Angeles. Since my operation, I have had no cardiac issues. None. In fact, at my last echocardiogram, my technician said to me, “This is amazing. Your valves look perfect.”

 
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As we have seen many times in our community, patients going through heart valve surgery often turn a metaphorical lemon into lemonade.  We “pay it forward” as they say.

For this reason, I wanted to share the story of Steve Deller.  Yes, Steve is a heart valve surgery patient.  Yes, Steve experienced complications after surgery.  And yes, Steve wants to help future patients learn about Dressler’s syndrome.

Steve Deller (Heart Valve & Dressler’s Syndrome Patient)

 
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[Update: Wonderful news! Our patient webinar, “Minimally-Invasive Heart Valve Surgery” with Dr. Dominic Emerson, was fantastic.  To see a video replay of the webinar, click this link. Or, you can download a copy of the new “Minimally-Invasive Heart Valve Surgery” eBook at this link.]

I’m excited to announce that our LIVE and FREE patient education events continue Thursday, December 12th, at 6pm EST, with a special webinar, “Minimally-Invasive Heart Valve Surgery”. The featured speaker is Dr. Dominic Emerson, a leading minimally-invasive cardiac surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

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It is amazing to see the physical, emotional and spiritual transformation that occurs in patients before-and-after heart valve surgery.  For example, here is the patient story of Suzi Epstein, an asymptomatic patient who was unexpectedly diagnosed with severe mitral regurgitation.

Suzi Epstein (Heart Valve Surgery Patient)

 
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I never imagined this… But, thank the heavens for the fun and humor of patients in our online support community.

Doug Fults (Heart Valve Surgery Patient at Cleveland Clinic)

 
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Big News! In case you missed it, the new SMART Clinical Trial just revealed important treatment advantages for women with aortic stenosis who undergo a Medtronic Evolut TAVR.

To learn more about this landmark study, I traveled to the Women’s Heart Health Congressional Day in Washington, D.C. to interview Dr. Roxana Mehran, a principal investigator of the SMART Clinical Trial.  Click here to watch my interview with Dr. Roxana Mehran about the SMART Clinical Trial, TAVR and women’s heart health. 

Many thanks to Dr. Mehran for sharing these fascinating new insights about the SMART Clinical Trial specific to women’s hearts and TAVR.

Related Links:

• See the new Medtronic TAVR Procedure Educational Microsite
• Research 50 Leading Heart Teams the Specialize in Medtronic TAVR
• Free eBook: What 7 Facts Should You Know About TAVR?

Keep on tickin!
Adam

Hearing from patients in our Community about their heart valve surgery success stories remains one of my favorite parts of running this website.  This time, I heard from Lisa Letizio after her heart valve surgery.

Lisa (Heart Valve Surgery Patient)

 
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In a recent patient survey, we learned that 53% of patients are not aware of the critical role that an interventional cardiologist plays within a heart team.

So, to help you learn about the importance of interventional cardiology for the lifetime treatment of heart valve disease, we just spent an entire day with Dr. Raj Makkar, a world-renowned interventional cardiologist who has performed over 7,000 transcatheter heart valve procedures that did not require an incision to the patient’s chest or ribs.

Click here to see our new video, “A ‘Day In The Life’ with Dr. Raj Makkar”.

Many thanks to Dr. Raj Makkar for the special invitation to learn more about interventional cardiology and the use of transcatheter devices for the treatment of diseases including aortic stenosis and mitral regurgitation.

Keep on tickin!
Adam

I just received a great patient story from David Monasterski who is a new member of our community.  After connecting with David at our YouTube Channel, he shared a very insightful story with me about bacterial endocarditis, aortic valve leaflet holes, the importance of second opinions, his weight loss journey and more.

David – Before & After Heart Valve Surgery

 
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Together, our patient community has a learned a lot about calcified aortic heart valves over the years. As you may know, a calcified heart valve can lead to severe aortic stenosis which is an under-diagnosed and life-threatening form of heart disease. That said, one of the big questions I continue to get from patients is, “What does a calcified aortic valve look like?”

Thanks to Dr. Neelan Doolabh, a leading minimally-invasive heart valve surgeon at UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas, here are five pictures taken during recent aortic valve replacement surgeries performed by Dr. Doolabh.  For example, that is a tri-leaflet aortic valve that has severe calcification all over the leaflets.

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I am incredibly happy to share that… Thanks to the support of this community and our amazing partner, Gift of Life International, we just helped Nsimire, a courageous 8-year old girl, undergo a life-saving cardiac procedure in Uganda!!!

Nsimire (Heart Surgery Patient at Uganda Heart Institute)

 
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Hey Everybody!

Given all the great patient questions we have received about the Ross Procedure used to treat aortic valve disease, we just posted a new educational video with Dr. Ismail El-Hamamsy.  As you may know, Dr. El-Hamamsy is a world-renowned expert that has performed over 800 Ross Procedures.  If you are thinking about the Ross Procedure as a potential treatment option for your aortic stenosis, aortic regurgitation and/or bicuspid aortic valve, you may want to see this fascinating new video with the latest medical insights and research about the Ross Procedure.

Click here to see Dr. Ismail El-Hamamsy share his 4 must-know facts about the Ross Procedure.

Keep on tickin!
Adam

Heart disease kills one in three women every year. That said, we are doing our best to raise awareness to this troublesome issue by speaking at congressional meetings in Washington, DC, supporting the “Go Red for Women” awareness initiative, and posting educational content specific to women’s heart health.

Unfortunately… We just learned new research which further widens the gender differences specific to cardiac care for women and men. According to a report by University of Michigan Health just published in JAMA Surgery, women are more likely than men to die after heart surgery due to complications.

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