might need heart surgery

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Cory_cnx

Member
Joined
Aug 30, 2013
Messages
7
Location
Tustin california
hi everyone how are you all ? well let me tell you a bit about my husband he's 26 years old and has a left bundle branch block , he needs a bicuspid aortic valve replacement .last year we went to the doctor and they told him his heart was working at 40% than he did a angiogram to see if his veins were blocked and they weren't. The doctor than gave him digoxin and lisinopril , everything was fine , we went back a couple months later and it said his heart was at 56%, the doctor said that he was doing fine to live a normal life, last month he went back and now they said his heart is at 42% and that he recommends that he does heart surgery . any thought ? has anyone experienced the same thing ?
 
Welcome to the forum. This is a very good forum for info from folks who have been thru this. It's always a good idea to get a second opinion before any major surgery. From what you posted, heart surgery seems to be in his future at some point. Read and learn all you, and he, can. When the time comes....it IS NOT a life ending event. The vast majority of younger people go on with their lives....without skipping a beat(pun intended).
 
Keep in mind that numbers like 42% and 56% probably refer to the ejection fraction, where 100% is not the norm, 70% or so is the norm. 56% isn't too bad. 42% is probably not good. Getting a second opinion sounds like a good idea.
 
VegasBAV said:
Keep in mind that numbers like 42% and 56% probably refer to the ejection fraction, where 100% is not the norm, 70% or so is the norm. 56% isn't too bad. 42% is probably not good. Getting a second opinion sounds like a good idea.
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Yes 42% ejection fraction .. Normal hear would be bewtween 50% and 65%
 
I too have a left bundle branch block. This was the red flag that led to the discovery of a previously undiagnosed BAV. Now I know that it runs in the family...my dad probably had it and I have a nephew who had it surgically repaired at age 2 months. He is 30 years old now and doing fine. Pre-surgery my EF was 45. My surgeon said post-surgery it would be 60...it is now 60! I feel great! Once I learned of the size of my aortic anuerysm (4.9cm) and just how bad my valve was...I wanted to get it done ASAP! Diagnosed 10/26/12.....Surgery 3/18/13.
 
thank you everyone for the responds , so yesterday we went to his doctor and got his past medical history : has a heart murmur .. invasive hc 3+ ar and normal coronary arteries. 03/15/2012 echo : left ventricular enlargement. overall left ventricular systolic function is within normal limits with a estimate fracture of 58%. Normal diastolic function. normal left ventricular wall thickness.No evidence of thrombus or thrombus or pericardial effusion. Mild thickening of the aortic valve. Doppler and color flow mapping reveals trace mitral , trace tricuspid and aortic regurgitation.
eco 03/01/2013 :left ventricular enlargement . overall left ventricular systolic function is mildly to moderately impaired with global hypokinesis and estimated ejection fraction of 42%. Normal diastolic function. Normal left ventricular wall thickness. No evidence of thrombus or pericardial effusion.Mild thickening of malformed/bicuspid appearing aortic valve. Doppler and color flow mapping reveals mild mitral, moderate (eccentric jet ) aortic and mild regurgitation. Theres is a question of a small subaortic ventricular septal defect.


so that is his history , the doctor said he needs to do some stress test and a elliptical test , he also gave him another medication : coreg tablet 3.125 mg , he has to take that twice a day to see if the percentage goes up .
 
Cory_cnx said:
Any more inputs???
Click to expand...

what everyone has said is seems pretty bang on to me. So don't panic, and as long as he's fine resting then there is no urgency. I agree that getting a second opinion is an excellent idea. It seems you have time to do this.

The time scales for these things are in months not hours.

best wishes
 
Go see Dr. Starnes or his partners at USC for second opinion (There is probably a comparable surgeon at UCLA but I went to USC) and don't let your hubby sit around and get weak. You guys will be fine.
 
Daniel Bethencourt, MD, might be a good choice, too. He's at Long Beach Memorial and I believe Orange Coast Memorial, too. He was my surgeon and I highly recommend him.
 
Cory_cnx said:
hi everyone how are you all ? well let me tell you a bit about my husband he's 26 years old and has a left bundle branch block , he needs a bicuspid aortic valve replacement .last year we went to the doctor and they told him his heart was working at 40% than he did a angiogram to see if his veins were blocked and they weren't. The doctor than gave him digoxin and lisinopril , everything was fine , we went back a couple months later and it said his heart was at 56%, the doctor said that he was doing fine to live a normal life, last month he went back and now they said his heart is at 42% and that he recommends that he does heart surgery . any thought ? has anyone experienced the same thing ?
Click to expand...

Hi
My wife need mitral and aortic replacement，I'm very worried because I dot know those doctors and hospitals have more experience in LA,if you find good one can you give me a help tell me.thanks
 
Hi
My wife need to mitral and aortic replacement I'm very worried because I dot know those Dr and hospitals more experience in LA ,if you know can you give me a help lat me know.thanks
 
Update i had a stress test done and doctor told me i wont need cirgury at the moment or the holster .. I just have to go back in 3 months for another echo he gave me new med called coreg3.125 ..
 
Don't forget the cardinal rule about echocardiograms -- they are not exact. The same patient may show different results on different days with the same tech, or may show different results even the same day with different tech's. You get the picture. We use echo's because they are non-invasive and they give valuable directional information. If they show a bad problem, there is probably something wrong. If they show no problem, that's probably the case. It is when they show "maybe" results that we have to remain calm and get more information. Often we are told that the echo shows that we may need surgery soon, or sometime, but the next will say "not yet." In these cases the important thing is the patient-doctor connection. The doctor can give advice and suggest other tests. He/she may also suggest just waiting as long as the patient has no major symptoms and is otherwise living a full life. In cases of early detection (murmurs, etc.), we seem to do a lot of waiting. When it gets bad enough, we act, but until then it is often best left alone.

Pardon my long post, but I guess I'm trying to say that as long as he is not having trouble living his life, it is probably safe to wait and learn more about the exact situation.
 
epstns said:
Don't forget the cardinal rule about echocardiograms -- they are not exact. The same patient may show different results on different days with the same tech, or may show different results even the same day with different tech's. You get the picture. We use echo's because they are non-invasive and they give valuable directional information. If they show a bad problem, there is probably something wrong. If they show no problem, that's probably the case. It is when they show "maybe" results that we have to remain calm and get more information. Often we are told that the echo shows that we may need surgery soon, or sometime, but the next will say "not yet." In these cases the important thing is the patient-doctor connection. The doctor can give advice and suggest other tests. He/she may also suggest just waiting as long as the patient has no major symptoms and is otherwise living a full life. In cases of early detection (murmurs, etc.), we seem to do a lot of waiting. When it gets bad enough, we act, but until then it is often best left alone.

Pardon my long post, but I guess I'm trying to say that as long as he is not having trouble living his life, it is probably safe to wait and learn more about the exact situation.
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Thanks for your response .. He is fine now .. The only problem is that he is being getting a anxiety attacks every since they told him he needed sirgury .. Also he keeps coughing out of nowhere and we read online and it says lisinopril couses a dry cough . When the doctor told us he didnt need sirgury he looked at the echo again and change the ef from his report . Now he says its between 45%-50%.
 
Yeah - lisinopril, along with all the meds having names ending in "pril" are said to have the common side effect of dry, non-productive cough. Some valvers call it their "kennel cough" because they started it while in the hospital with others and cannot get rid of it. Maybe talk with the doc and see if there is another medication that will have the same theraputic effect without the cough.
 
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