Adam's Heart Valve Surgery Blog – Page 9

I am very excited to announce that WakeMed Heart & Vascular in Raleigh, North Carolina, just became the newest heart valve surgery center to join us at HeartValveSurgery.com.

 
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[Update: Thanks to our wonderful patient community, our survey is now complete.]

Can I ask you a quick favor? To help future patients, I want to learn how people diagnosed with aortic stenosis get educated about their disease, treatment options and recovery.

That said, I would LOVE to hear your feedback on four new educational videos about aortic stenosis. If you have been diagnosed with aortic stenosis and you have not had an operation yet, will you please take the survey?

In advance, thanks so much for your help!

I really appreciate it!

Keep on tickin!
Adam

I received a great question from Tom about “Pumphead” after heart surgery. In his email to me, Tom asked me, “Hi Adam, What is the truth about Pumphead? I have read conflicting reports about whether or not the heart-lung machine is potentially responsible for post-operative cognitive issues including confusion, anxiety, and forgetfulness.”

To provide Tom an expert response to this important question, I contacted Dr. Junaid Khan, a leading cardiac surgeon at Sutter Health Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland, California. During his career, Dr. Khan has performed over 4,000 cardiac procedure with more than 2,000 operations involving heart valve repair and replacement operations.

Click here to see our exclusive interview with Dr. Khan about Pumphead.

 
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For the first time since the pandemic began, I tested positive for COVID-19 last Friday.

So you know, I did get the Pfizer vaccine. I also got each of the three boosters. Interestingly, I got the Bivalent Omicron COVID-19 Booster just two weeks ago.

 
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I am very happy to announce that Dr. Luis Castro, a leading cardiac surgeon at Dignity Health Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City, California, has just become the first cardiac surgeon to receive 200 testimonials from patients in the HeartValveSurgery.com community.  Woo-Hoo!!!!

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Not all patients with aortic valve disease need a mechanical or biological valve replacement.  Let me repeat that… Not all patients with aortic stenosis or aortic regurgitation need a mechanical or biological valve replacement.

Thanks to advanced surgical techniques, known as aortic valve reconstruction, patients may greatly benefit from keeping their aortic valve tissue. To learn more about patient advantages from aortic valve reconstruction procedures, we just interviewed Dr. Chris Malaisrie, a leading aortic valve surgeon at Northwestern Medicine. 

Click here to see our exclusive interview with Dr. Malaisrie.

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Sometimes… Life is just too darn fun!!!

For example, I just received two wonderful pictures from Dr. Robert Saeid Farivar, a leading cardiac surgeon at Saint Alphonsus Health System in Boise, Idaho, with Mike Gabler from Survivor 43!  As you can read in this post, Mike is a Heart Valve Specialist who is a contestant on Survivor which is one of my favorite tv shows.

Dr. Robert Saeid Farivar & Mike Gabler

 
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Aortic stenosis is a life-threatening disease that is under-diagnosed and under-treated. In fact, the survival rate is just 50% at two years for patients diagnosed with symptomatic severe aortic stenosis. To make matters worse, only 9% of patients that receive non-invasive transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) are minorities according to this research.

How is Medtronic, a leading TAVR manufacturer, changing this healthcare inequity to help aortic stenosis patients like Mrs. Darian Tymes? Watch this video to find out.

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I just had an insightful conversation with Leila Saeid, a mom, wife and dentist in Southern California, about her recovery from minimally-invasive heart valve surgery. We were also joined by Leila’s surgeon, Dr. Joanna Chikwe, the Chair of Cardiac Surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

To watch this special interview with Leila and Dr. Chikwe, please click here.

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I am very happy to announce that Dr. Vaughn Starnes, my surgeon, just became the sixth doctor to receive 100 patient reviews at HeartValveSurgery.com!

This is a wonderful milestone as Dr. Starnes and his team at Keck Medicine of USC in Los Angeles, California has successfully treated so many patients in our community with valvular diseases including aortic stenosis and mitral regurgitation.

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Survivor is one of my favorite television shows. I have watched most, if not all, of the episodes during the past forty-two seasons. I love everything about the show that many consider the “original” reality tv series.

Luckily, Robyn, my wife, and Ethan, my son, enjoy Survivor as well. When we recently watched the first episode of Survivor 43, Robyn shouted out, “Stop! Did you see that?”, when the show introduced a new contestant.

I looked at Robyn and said, “What? I missed it.” I then hit rewind. There, on the screen, I saw the name “Mike Gabler”. Next to his name, we saw the words, “Heart Valve Specialist”.

 
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I’ve received several patient questions about whether-or-not I got the bivalent COVID-19 booster.  As you can see in the picture below, the answer to that question is yes.

 
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Artivion has stopped the PROACT Xa Clinical Trial evaluating the safety-and-effectiveness of the On-X mechanical valve with apixaban as a blood thinner to prevent clotting.  The PROACT Xa clinical trial was designed to evaluate whether patients could safely receive an On-X mechanical valve without the lifelong monitoring requirements of warfain, the only approved blood thinner for mechanical valves.

On-X Aortic Mechanical Heart Valve

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The patient stories in our community just keep getting better-and-better.

For example, a huge smile just crossed my face as I opened this email from Ginny Turner, a mitral valve patient.  Here is what Ginny wrote to Dr. Marc Gillinov, her surgeon, and me:

Hi Dr. Gillinov and Adam,

Look what happened yesterday at a quaint lunch spot just outside of Austin, Texas!

Lisa, Randy and Ginny (Heart Valve Patients)

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I just received a great question from Rich about mitral valve surgery.  In his email, Rich asks, “Hi Adam, I’m a 63-year-old male who competes in natural bodybuilding. Three years ago, I had a mechanical aortic valve replacement. Now, I have severe mitral regurgitation with mild atrium dilation. I have only mild symptoms such as an occasional palpitation. Can I get the mitral valve repaired with a robotic procedure, or is the MitraClip the protocol given my risk factor?”

To provide Rich an expert response, I contacted Dr. Joanna Chikwe, the Chair of Cardiac Surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, who specializes in mitral valve surgery. As you may know, Dr. Chikwe has performed many successful mitral valve operations on patients in our community including Wendy Spector, Leila Saedi and Scott Wallace.

 
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I just received several interesting questions from Leslie about unicuspid aortic valves. She emailed me, “Hi Adam – What can you tell me about unicuspid aortic valves? How are they treated? Are they genetic? If so, should I have my family screened?”

To answer Leslie’s questions about this valvular defect in which the aortic valve has only one leaflet, I was lucky to interview Dr. Samuel Pollock, a leading cardiac surgeon at Baptist Health Louisville, who has performed over 12,000 cardiac procedures.

Click here to watch my interview with Dr. Pollock about unicuspid aortic valves. 

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Wow! Double Wow! Triple Wow!

Are you ready to learn how new radiopaque markers help medical teams perform non-invasive, valve-in-valve operations under x-ray with no incision to the patient’s chest or ribs?

Click here to see our exclusive interview with Dr. Jason Rogers, Clinical Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and the Director of Interventional Cardiology at UC Davis Health.

 
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The patient success stories in our community are downright wonderful.  For example, I just received this inspirational email from Lilian Pena of the Philippines which reads:

Hello Adam, I am so grateful that I found your website and can interact with patients from all over the world in the community section.  So you know, I suffered from anxiety the moment I discovered that I needed to undergo open heart surgery.  Now, I am 6 months post-op after a double mechanical valve replacement.  I received two mechanical heart valves from St. Jude Medical (which is now Abbott).

Lilian Two Weeks After Surgery

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In case you missed it… I just posted a very interesting interview transcript with Dr. Samir Kapadia, Chairman of Cardiology at Cleveland Clinic.

Click here to read “Heart Valve Clinical Trials: What Should Patients Know?”.

Many thanks to Dr. Samir Kapadia for sharing his clinical experiences and research with our community. I also want thank Cleveland Clinic for taking such great care of our patients.

Keep on tickin!
Adam

This is way off-topic… But, hopefully helpful and maybe even fun!

Like many parts of the planet, this summer has been really hot in Southern California where I live. Recently, however, Robyn (my wife), Ethan (my son), and I decided to brave the heat and go to Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

Dole Whip at Disneyland

 
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