I had my pre-op cath yesterday. The good news is my cardiac arteries were clear and no bypass is necessary. I had a chance to chat with both my cardio who did the cath and my soon to be surgeon.
A few days ago, I had spoken with the surgeon on the phone and he hinted he might not replace any part of aorta. My echo measured the dialation a 4.9. I left that conversion with the impression my whole aorta was dialated and confused as to why he felt like he might not fix the aorta.
Yesterday after the cath, the surgeon came by and cleared up the confusion. Only the root is dialated at 5.1 and the rest of aorta is dialated, but only about 4.0. He is thinking there is a chance my arterial arteries are located so close to the heart that there might not be room to cut enough tissue around the arteries to properly connect them to a graft. He said that is also likely the reason that my tissue valve is leaking, not because of the valve itself, because during the last operation the arteries where so close that the last surgeon might have had difficulty sewing in the valve probably. He said it wouldn't surprise him if when he went in, that vavle itselt would be just fine.
He did give me some hope in the the way the aorta dialates, the arteries that were previously difficult to work around last time might be not be so difficult now. None the less, it seems possible that I could go into my 2nd surgery and get a shinny new valve, but not get the aorta fixed. Good times.
I was thinking if he could fix the aorta to get the mechanical but I'm not sure what to do if he cant'. My my aorta dialated to 5.1, it's likely I would need surgery sometime in the next few years prior to a tissue valve going bad. I'm thinking now that will tell him to go mechanical if he can fix the aorta, if not, go tissue.
Thoughts?
A few days ago, I had spoken with the surgeon on the phone and he hinted he might not replace any part of aorta. My echo measured the dialation a 4.9. I left that conversion with the impression my whole aorta was dialated and confused as to why he felt like he might not fix the aorta.
Yesterday after the cath, the surgeon came by and cleared up the confusion. Only the root is dialated at 5.1 and the rest of aorta is dialated, but only about 4.0. He is thinking there is a chance my arterial arteries are located so close to the heart that there might not be room to cut enough tissue around the arteries to properly connect them to a graft. He said that is also likely the reason that my tissue valve is leaking, not because of the valve itself, because during the last operation the arteries where so close that the last surgeon might have had difficulty sewing in the valve probably. He said it wouldn't surprise him if when he went in, that vavle itselt would be just fine.
He did give me some hope in the the way the aorta dialates, the arteries that were previously difficult to work around last time might be not be so difficult now. None the less, it seems possible that I could go into my 2nd surgery and get a shinny new valve, but not get the aorta fixed. Good times.
I was thinking if he could fix the aorta to get the mechanical but I'm not sure what to do if he cant'. My my aorta dialated to 5.1, it's likely I would need surgery sometime in the next few years prior to a tissue valve going bad. I'm thinking now that will tell him to go mechanical if he can fix the aorta, if not, go tissue.
Thoughts?
