I just wanted to point out this thread is from 2004
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Ovie
Well-known member
^^^ This made me laugh...and I don't know why.
Just wondering how it is folks are replying to a thread that is eight years old. Perhaps they found the original post in a search and thought it new without noticing the posting date? Of course, nothing wrong with this -- sometimes worthwhile threads are revived after a long lapse.
I'm going in a week to NYU Dr. Aubrey Gallaway he is chair of the dept. And an amazing man, as they the whole package as a person and surgeon. My understaning is that NYU is the place that has mastered and started minimual invasive valve replacement
ll66
New member
HI-
I know this thread is very old, but when you google search- best surgeon for aortic valve replacement, this thread comes up, so I bet it is still helpful information for alot of people.
My recommendation: DR. MCCARTHY at NORTHWESTERN in CHICAGO (he used to be at CLEVELAND CLINIC)
My mom had an aortic valve replacement in August of 2011 and the results were absolutely fantastic. She is 83 years old, had very advanced aortic stenosis but very mild symptoms, almost nothing. (twice, she was slightly out of breath walking up a hill, which wasn't that different from the norm for her). A couple of doctors recommended aortic valve replacement, but we weren't even sure if we wanted her to do it because of the lack of symptoms. But they all said, with aortic stenosis, it is common to be asymptomatic and without warning you can have a cardiac arrest.
At first, we were considering the TAVI procedure, which is a catheter procedure through the groin, therefore no open heart surgery. At first, this sounded good, but then we realized, this procedure is only actually recommended if the patient is HIGH RISK for surgery. If the patient is NOT HIGH RISK for surgery, then the traditional open heart surgery is the GOLD STANDARD and definitely the PREFERRED route. This was confusing for us at first, as it was not made very clear.
My mother had aortic valve replacement with open heart surgery with a bovine valve. The surgery went beautifully and her recovery was amazing! She suffered no ill effects from the heart-lung machine whatsoever and was totally coherent the morning after the surgery. She was pain-free and never even needed pain medication. The incision healed very quickly and she regained almost normal functioning after about 3 weeks. (although because of internal healing, normal activity is not restarted for about 2 months) All of the nurses were literally raving about Dr. McCarthy, saying all of his patients seem to recover just beautifully from his surgeries. We were sort of taken aback by how enthusiastic everyone was about him. He sort of has a 'wizard' reputation there. He came from Cleveland Clinic and I think now at Northwestern he is sort of like their claim to fame and they are very proud to have him there. He is not the most talkative man, in fact, will not really speak to you at length after the surgery, just saying "everything is fine". But we didn't care, because the procedure went so flawlessly!! Also, the nurses at Northwestern were excellent too!
My mother is doing fantastic now, (8 months after the surgery). She said at about 2 months after the surgery that she has ALOT MORE ENERGY, than before the procedure, even though she didn't even realize that she was lacking energy before the surgery!! Can't say enough about McCarthy!
I know this thread is very old, but when you google search- best surgeon for aortic valve replacement, this thread comes up, so I bet it is still helpful information for alot of people.
My recommendation: DR. MCCARTHY at NORTHWESTERN in CHICAGO (he used to be at CLEVELAND CLINIC)
My mom had an aortic valve replacement in August of 2011 and the results were absolutely fantastic. She is 83 years old, had very advanced aortic stenosis but very mild symptoms, almost nothing. (twice, she was slightly out of breath walking up a hill, which wasn't that different from the norm for her). A couple of doctors recommended aortic valve replacement, but we weren't even sure if we wanted her to do it because of the lack of symptoms. But they all said, with aortic stenosis, it is common to be asymptomatic and without warning you can have a cardiac arrest.
At first, we were considering the TAVI procedure, which is a catheter procedure through the groin, therefore no open heart surgery. At first, this sounded good, but then we realized, this procedure is only actually recommended if the patient is HIGH RISK for surgery. If the patient is NOT HIGH RISK for surgery, then the traditional open heart surgery is the GOLD STANDARD and definitely the PREFERRED route. This was confusing for us at first, as it was not made very clear.
My mother had aortic valve replacement with open heart surgery with a bovine valve. The surgery went beautifully and her recovery was amazing! She suffered no ill effects from the heart-lung machine whatsoever and was totally coherent the morning after the surgery. She was pain-free and never even needed pain medication. The incision healed very quickly and she regained almost normal functioning after about 3 weeks. (although because of internal healing, normal activity is not restarted for about 2 months) All of the nurses were literally raving about Dr. McCarthy, saying all of his patients seem to recover just beautifully from his surgeries. We were sort of taken aback by how enthusiastic everyone was about him. He sort of has a 'wizard' reputation there. He came from Cleveland Clinic and I think now at Northwestern he is sort of like their claim to fame and they are very proud to have him there. He is not the most talkative man, in fact, will not really speak to you at length after the surgery, just saying "everything is fine". But we didn't care, because the procedure went so flawlessly!! Also, the nurses at Northwestern were excellent too!
My mother is doing fantastic now, (8 months after the surgery). She said at about 2 months after the surgery that she has ALOT MORE ENERGY, than before the procedure, even though she didn't even realize that she was lacking energy before the surgery!! Can't say enough about McCarthy!
