Dr. Joseph DeRose-on valve selection for minimally invasive surgery

[deck1434]

"Dr. DeRose has a particular research and clinical interest in robotic cardiothoracic surgery. He was involved in the first robotic biventricular pacemaker, thymectomy and atrial spetal defect repair in the world. His clinical practice is devoted to minimally invasive and alternative approaches to complex cardiovascular disease. His research interests include ventricular mapping for biventricular pacemaker insertion, robotic coronary artery bypass grafting, the use of bilateral internal thoracic arteries, and thoracoscopic mitral valve surgery..."

Dr. DeRose is Chief, Adult Cardiac Surgery-Weiler Division; Director, Minimally Invasive and Robotic Cardiac Surgery at Montefiore Medical Center in NYC.

He is a friend of my brother's, which I just found out a few weeks ago. His response to the On-X versus the St. Jude valves realtive to minimally invasive surgery is as follows:

"Both valves are fine. On-X valve in the aortic position is being tested with ASA only but at present I do not recommend that. St. Jude is easier to implant minimally invasively."

Just thought I'd share this for anyone interested. - Dianne

 

[Duffey]

Very interesting, Dianne. Thanks.

 

[tobagotwo]

Interesting commentary. Just a philosophical note:

The surgeon puts it in once. You use it for approximately 100,000 heartbeats per day, every day, for the rest of your life.

I wouldn't care in the least if he had to work a little harder over the course of a couple of hours, in relation to how it may affect me the rest of my life.

Best wishes,

 

[Mentu]

Dianne, my surgeon said almost the same thing about the ON-X and the St Jude. He also mentioned that most of the publicity has been centered on the ON-X studies considering the possibility that patients might be able to stop using coumadin. Similar work is also being done on the latest St Jude. If you read about the history of the these valves, you will discover that they are both products associated with Dr Jack Bokros and the teams he worked with since the 1970s. An interesting paper is "Mechanical heart valves: 50 years of evolution" by Vincent L. Gott, Duane E. Alejo and Duke E. Cameron in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, 2003; 76:2230-2239.