Adam's Heart Valve Surgery Blog – Page 23

Ready to go on a wonderful journey through the evolution of heart surgery?

In this video… Dr. Paul Fedak, the Professor of the Department of Cardiac Sciences at the University of Calgary, describes the pioneers and the medical breakthroughs that transformed heart surgery from taboo to mainstream medicine.  The video is 17 minutes long… And, worth every second of it.

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It’s hard to believe… 12 years ago…

At this very moment, I was being wheeled into an operating room at the University of Southern California where Dr. Vaughn Starnes and his team would perform a Ross Procedure to fix my heart that suffered from a bicuspid aortic valve with stenosis and regurgitation.

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At the Heart Valve Summit, I received a great question about sternum healing, wires and infection.  Joachim asked me, “Publications have revealed that 50 to 80% of sternal infections are discovered after discharge, and that cardiac patients have the highest readmission rates. Since the sternal wires are the only force holding the sternum together after surgery, why is it that external chest supports are not a standard, adjunctive, and precautionary procedure after surgery?”

To get Joachim an expert opinion, I was very fortunate to sit down with Dr. Steve Bolling, a leading cardiac surgeon from Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor.  Here are the highlights from our chat:

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I’ll never forget the flood of dislocating emotions and questions that raced through my mind when Dr. Bad Bedside Manner said to me, “Adam – You need heart valve surgery.  And, you need it soon.” I felt confused.  I felt alone.  And, I felt afraid.  Specific to the fear, I distinctly remember thinking, “What are the chances I might die during this incredibly complex surgery?” and “Is it heart surgery safe?” and “Is it worth the risk?”

I was reminded of these questions when Betty recently asked me, “What are the percentages of people who die after aortic valve replacement?”  To answer Betty’s question, I was very fortunate to interview Dr. Patrick McCarthy, who is the Executive Director of the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute at Northwestern Medicine.  During his career, Dr. McCarthy has performed over 10,000 cardiac procedures of which more than 5,000 involved heart valve procedures. Here’s what Dr. McCarthy shared with me:

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I’ve witnessed it first hand…

I’ve seen it happen in the Dominican Republic…

When Dr. David Adams, the Mitral Foundation, and Every Heartbeat Matters comes together, the human spirit lifts and heart valve patients get a “second chance” at life.

Recently, I had a special opportunity to talk with Dr. Adams about Berthony, a 24-year old patient from Haiti, who needed not one, not two, but three valves operated on.

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The evolution of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has transformed from a crazy idea to a life-saving therapy during the past 25 years. Throughout that time, many dedicated doctors, research staffs, clinical specialists and medical device companies joined forces to bring about a “new age” in minimally invasive, valvular therapy that does not require an incision to the patient’s sternum or ribs.

One team that has powered the TAVR revolution is Dr. Michael Mack, the past-president of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, and Dr. David Brown, a world-renown cardiologist, at The Heart Hospital Baylor Plano.

I could ramble on-and-on about their commitment to TAVR.

I could ramble on-and-on about their efforts to transform an industry.

Instead, I wanted to share this wonderful video which celebrates their unique journey to their 1,000th TAVR procedure completed last week.

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Given all the recent developments about “Valve-in-Valve” procedures, my inbox is swelling up with questions.  For example, Connie asked me, “I had my aortic valve replaced in 2014.  What are the chances of Valve-in-Valve replacement for smaller sizes such as 21mm Edwards Magna Ease pericardial valve?”

I loved Connie’s question as it raises so many critical elements of valve therapy including valve size, valve re-operations and the new transcatheter procedures that are just now receiving FDA approval.  For that reason, I wanted a “Rock Star” response to help our community learn more.

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There is one statistic about heart disease that makes me very uncomfortable and very sad. Here it is…  Heart disease is responsible for 1 out of 3 deaths among women. Imagine that? Shocking, right?

For that reason… In 1998, the American Heart Association (AHA) set a wonderful, 10-year goal to reduce the number of deaths from heart disease and stroke by 25 percent. Now, 10 years later, that goal has been exceeded.  Watch this video to learn how the AHA’s patient education efforts have saved the lives 1.7 million people.

Many thanks to the AHA for its extraordinary campaign to educate and empower patients with heart disease. And specifically, many thanks to all the volunteers, the corporate sponsors, and the donors who have come together to fight heart disease.

Keep on tickin’ AHA!
Adam

I have some great and fun news to share with our community!  The Pick family has expanded by four feet.  That’s right.  I am happy to introduce you to Bodie Pick, our new 16-week old puppy.  He also goes by “BoBo”, “Bear” and “Bodiferous”.

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At the recent Heart Valve Summit, I was overwhelmed with wonderful patient questions for our “Ask Adam Anything” event.  For example, Eileen asked me about atrial fibrillation (AFib) which is an abnormal heart rhythm.  Eileen’s question was, “Is atrial fibrillation after heart valve surgery common?”

As you may know… Atrial fibrillation is closely associated with heart valve disease.  For that reason, I wanted to get Eileen an expert opinion.  So, I tracked down Dr. Marc Gillinov who is the new Chair of Cardiac Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic.  So you know, Dr. Gillinov is a guru when it comes to valvular heart disease and atrial fibrillation.  You should also know that Dr. Gillinov has successfully treated many, many, many patients from our community including Anita Devine, Jeff Pirofsky and Fran Zilko.

Here are the highlights from my interview with Dr. Gillinov about atrial fibrillation after heart surgery.

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I am overly excited to share that Dr. Luis Castro just received his 103rd patient testimonial at his surgeon profile.

If you’re not familiar with Dr. Castro, let me introduce you to a special person whose patient-centric approach to cardiac care is fundamentally unique.  Dr. Castro goes above-and-beyond for his patients.  He gives out his cell phone number to his patients.  Dr. Castro goes surfing with his patients.  He educates his patients about each step in the surgical process.  And, most importantly, he delivers excellent surgical results.

Dr. Castro with Tom Fitzmorris (his aortic valve patient)

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Together, we’ve learned lots about the advantages of mitral valve repair procedures which include long-term durability and freedom from re-operation.  In the process, I’ve attended wonderful mitral valve conferences and I’ve even gone inside live surgeon workshops dedicated to teaching best practices for mitral valve repair.

That said, you might be wondering, “What about aortic valve repair?” and “Why don’t I hear much about aortic valve repair?”.  Unfortunately, our educational efforts specific to aortic valve repair have been minimal.  In the past, I simply haven’t received many patient questions about aortic valve repair.

Well…  It appears that is about to change.  During the recent Heart Valve Summit, I sat down with Dr. Vinay Badhwar, the Professor and Executive Chair of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at West Virginia University Medicine, to get the latest updates on new aortic valve repair devices and techniques.  Here are the exciting highlights from our discussion.

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Aortic stenosis is a wildly misunderstood form of heart disease that impacts 12% of the elderly population. The disease is often mis-diagnosed and often under-treated. This narrowing of the aortic valve is commonly referred to as an “insidious” disease considering (i) its symptoms are regularly and incorrectly discounted to normal aging processes and (ii) patients can be asymptomatic.  As the disease can have fatal implications, I’ve also heard several doctors call aortic stenosis a “silent killer”.

As my personal mission is to educate and empower our patient community, I wanted to learn more about aortic stenosis progression.  Specifically, I wanted to dig deeper because so many aortic stenosis patients in our community are in “watchful waiting”.  In watchful waiting, the patient has been diagnosed with aortic stenosis. However, the severity of the disease does not yet require surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) or transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR).  So you know… I was in the “watchful waiting” for 7 years.

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The power of our patient community never ceases to amaze me. You guys and gals are simply amazing!!!

Interestingly… When you combine our “patient power” with social media, some unexpected and wonderful things can happen that drive awesome awareness to heart valve disease.  For example, John Dodson had aortic valve replacement due to aortic stenosis last week.  During John’s hospital stay, Seth (his son) posted several inspirational photos at John’s journal.  After seeing these inspirational photos, I posted them at our Facebook page.  Then, these photos went viral and were shared all over the world.  In total, John’s pictures had over 5,300 Facebook Likes and 750 Comments.

Here’s John flashing our community two “thumbs-up” just 4 hours after surgery. This one photo had 4,800 Facebook Likes, 619 Comments and 225 Timeline Shares. Fantastic!

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I wanted to take a moment to thank the patients and the caregivers who recently completed our online survey about HeartValveSurgery.com.  I really appreciate you taking the time to provide your honest feedback about the things I’m doing to educate and to empower the people in our community.

Your feedback was extraordinary.  And, your ideas will be used to enhance our community and shape our educational content going forward.  I really enjoyed learning about the content you find valuable, the media formats you prefer, and the types of topics you would like addressed in the future.

I would also like to thank you for the positive response to the question, “Would you recommend HeartValveSurgery.com to a patient?”.  As you might imagine, I’m always nervous when I see the response to this question.  I was overwhelmed to see that 99% of you answered “Yes” to this question.  Yay!

As always, thanks for your support and encouragement specific to this project! Once again, you have made my day, my week, my month, my year!

Keep on tickin!
Adam

At the recent “Ask Me Anything” session at the Heart Valve Summit in Chicago, I received a great question from Maria about heart valve repair rings (also known as annuloplasty rings). Maria wrote to me, “Hi, Adam, two questions. Could you please ask the surgeons about annuloplasty rings, and which styles  and brands have the best track record for long-term effectiveness following a mitral valve repair surgery? Thanks! Maria”

To answer this question, I was very fortunate to interview Dr. Steve Bolling from Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor, MI.  So you know, Dr. Bolling is a mitral valve repair guru who performs about 350 mitral procedures a year. That said, Dr. Bolling was the perfect person to answer Maria’s question. Here’s what Dr. Bolling shared with me.

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I get lots of excellent questions about heart valve disease from our patient community. And, I do my best to answer those questions to help educate and empower people just like you.

Recently, I’ve received a different type of excellent question specific to our website. That question is, “Is HeartValveSurgery.com secure?”

The simple answer to this question is “Yes”.  This website is designed to be secure.  The long answer to this question is much more complex.  That said, I wanted to share with you several updates specific to the security that protects you, our community and the information shared at this website.

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If you have questions about heart valve disease and treatment… Let me get the answers for you from the world’s leading cardiologists and surgeons!!!

That’s right.  Send me your questions now and I’ll get them answered LIVE at the Heart Valve Summit in Chicago this Thursday, October 5!

Submit your questions right now at our Facebook Page or in the comments section below.

Looking forward to answering your questions LIVE at the Heart Valve Summit!

Keep on tickin!
Adam

This is completely unexpected!  I just learned that HeartValveSurgery.com ranks #3 in FeedSpot’s Top Heart Blogs for 2017. What an honor!

Personally, I was amazed to see that we ranked above 71 well-known and prestigious websites including the American Heart Association, Medical News Today, the British Heart Foundation, Google News and Drugs.com. Unbelievable!

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I have to congratulate Barry for being his own… best… patient advocate.

That’s right.  Given the common referral pattern – from primary care physician to cardiologist to surgeon – it’s fairly easy to let the health system (and the insurance companies) dictate your heart surgeon selection process.  Instead, I always encourage patients to find the right surgeon for them. And, for the patient’s specific valvular disorder.

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