I just received an interesting email from Tammy that touches on heart valve surgery, atrial fibrillation and the MAZE procedure.
Tammy writes, “Adam - Like a couple of your readers (Mark, Patrick and Anita), my doctor has suggested that I need a combo operation that includes a mitral valve repair due to regurg and a Maze [...]

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Patients and caregivers often ask me about the immediate, post-op experience in the intensive care unit. Common questions include:

How long were you in the intensive care unit?
Did you experience pain immediately?
Was your family allowed in the ICU area?
How many tubes were sticking out of you when you woke up?

However, one of more common questions I [...]

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As we have seen through the inspiring stories of Teppo Numminen (NHL hockey star) and Aaron Boone (MLB baseball star), several athletes have returned to professional sports after heart valve surgery.
Here is a great story about competitive cyclist, Michael Gnatek. At 43 years of age, Michael required mitral valve repair surgery due to a mitral [...]

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When I find a good, educational video about heart valve surgery, I waste no time posting it here for all of us to learn from.
To this point, I just came across an excellent video all about aortic valve replacement surgery. It’s a great introduction to aortic valve surgery for patients recently diagnosed with aortic stenosis [...]

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Last week, I posted the first part of a great video by Dr. Gaudiani all about surgical outcomes for heart valve surgery patients.
Here is the second part of that video. By the way, if you would like to watch the first part of the video, please click here.
 
FYI, I was fortunate to speak with [...]

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Through your stories and my ongoing research, I have learned that properly diagnosing heart valve disease can be tricky. That said, I always encourage patients to get a second opinion prior to any surgical treatment (if possible).
However, Gregg just sent me an interesting question about the use of M.R.I.’s as a diagnostic tool for valvular [...]

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Leslie just forwarded me this video about United Healthcare, one of the largest insurance companies in the world. I know there are two sides to every story… But, the patient stories told in this video are rather disturbing.

It’s also very hard not to think about the 46 million Americans that have no insurance coverage after [...]

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Although heart valve surgery can be a very challenging process, my research suggests that most patients look back upon their surgical experience as a transformational ticket to a “second chance” at life.
That said… Here is Robin Williams, the comedian and Oscar-award winning actor, describing his thoughts on heart valve surgery, the emotions it conjures, second [...]

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Here’s a great patient success story about John Doss, a 56-year old Karate instructor from Michigan. Doctor Ali Kafi, Chief of Clinical Cardiothoracic Surgery, from Detroit Medical Center, performed the aortic valve replacement.

During the video, Dr. Ali Kafi references the use of a mini-sternotomy. To give you a visual comparison of a mini-sternotomy incision versus [...]

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As we have previously discussed, heart valve disease can be genetic. In my family, it appears that a gene for congenital bicuspid aortic valve runs through our DNA.
To this point, I just came across a good, educational video about two related patients - Joanne Kennedy and her daughter, Laura. Both Joanne and Laura required heart [...]

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