da Vinci robot heart surgery???

[denobobeno]

Bent D, thanks for the reccomendation. I'm going today to visit with a Surgeon in Odessa (of all places!).. he is supposed to be really good..but, for convenience I'd rather go to the Dallas area, I know there are plenty of great Surgeons there too, so I appreciate the info.
What type surgery did you have? I'm hoping I can have the 'minimally invasive' surgery..we'll see. I appreciate the link and will definately check him out! Deana

 

[Brent D]

I had AVR surgery. We used the ATS open pivot valve. My surgery was definitely not minimally invasive, but my incision was only about 5 inches long. I was out of the hospital 3 days after surgery. If you have any more questions, just let me know...

 

[KristiinSD]

I had robotic assist surgery

I had robotic assist surgery

and I strongly recommend it, although I don't have a comparison group. Still, it was/is very important to me to not have a big incision in my chest. I am very overweight with very large breasts and I was truly concerned that a sternum incision would not heal properly. Plus, I'm single and think having a big old scar would not be a dating plus (neither is being very overweight...).

I had complications, but they were not related to the surgical approach. Six months out and I still have numbness around my incision (which is under my breast), but my heart sounds great. My pump time was almost 3 hours, which isn't great and I still have floaters in my visual field, but I still am glad that my sternum is intact.

Kristi
11/30/05 mitral valve repair