Minimally invasive valve surgery

[CarolM]

Hi

I'm new to this forum and found out a couple of days ago that mitral valve repair/replacement will be in six to eight weeks. I haven't met my surgeon yet, but understand he is a specialist in minimally invasive surgery. Does any one have any experience or knowledge of the procedure? Of course, I don't know if thats the route he can or will go, but would like information.

Carol
:confused:

[Marty]

Carol, You really can only rely on your cardiologist and surgeon for a reliable answer to your question. I had mitral valve replacement over three years ago and my cardiologist referred me
to a great surgeon at Inova Fairfax who at that time did not do minimal invasive. My cardiologist said he wanted the surgeon who operated on him to be comfortable and have a good view of things. When my surgeon checked my TEE at surgery and after he viewed the valve directly he found repair not prudent and gave me a mechanical St. Jude which is still doing fine. Now having said all this, my surgeon is now testing a DaVinci robot and has done four mitral repairs with it. The robot works through three tiny incisions so they do not have to split the breast bone. The four robot patients all are doing well. You might ask your doctors how they feel about this.

[Lorraine]

Carol,

Welcome to our wonderful VR.com family. You have asked the question that I do have a lot of knowledge on. I was suppose to have minimal non-invasive Mitral Valve procedure last January 2001.

My cardio referred me to a collegue of his in Chicago who after all the testing , said I was a perfect candidtate for this kind of procedure. It was called Balloon Valvuloplasty. The cardio goes up through the groin area and insert this minute tube with a balloon deflated on the end. They pass through the valve and then open the balloon and bring it back through to widen the valve. The cardio said they would have to do this three or four times in concession to get it wide enough.

The first time they did this in January, the doctor aborted the procedure very shortly after he started because he nicked my heart. He was worried about internal bleeding. I went back to have it done March 5th and he blew out the valve completely on the first pass through, made it too wide and I was forced with having to have OHS three days later. :eek:

I still feel it would be a good way to repair the valve. I'm not trying to scare you but I would make sure you have a cardio who is an expertise(who has done plenty of these procedures) in this area which I probably should have researched further myself. I really had hope to have it done non-invasively to prevent from having to be on Coumadin. I did do a lot of research on the procedure. I'll look for my bookmarks and post them on here later. That way you can decide for yourself. I think if they were able to do it on my forth valve if it were to fail, I would still try that first. Not with the same cardio of course! :) I hope I helped you!

You can send me a private message or email me if you would like to discuss this further.

[Nancy]

My husband had his last surgery with the heart port method. It was a good surgical result and the surgeon had plenty of "view" he said.

It was a better deal for Joe also, because it was his third valve surgery. His first two were through the sternum. Recovery was better than with the sternum. However, he did come down with an unusual after surgery problem called "serum sickness" which is a hypersensitivity problem. It's not something directly related to the surgical method. This did complicate his recovery, so I can't assess the full impact of a minimally invasive recovery.

However, that said, going through the lung area is quite painful. Lots of scar tissue can acculmulate there. There's no free ride, I guess.

The important part is having a good "fix" for your problems, no matter what the method.

Best wishes.

[hensylee]

Hi Carol - welcome - my cousin recently had noninvasive heart surgery to repair a hole in her heart. (She is a very young girl still in childbearing age - in fact was pg when they discovered it) Her ins co didn't want to pay for it as it had not been done enough times, but she rebelled, went all the way to local, state and federal officials, including White House and her ins co called her, said tomorrow - surgery. She got it done, went home next day. Don't know how this will apply to valve replacement, but can't be much different. Sure is easier on the patient. Wish you well. God bless