Help with picking surgeon

[lucky401]

Hi Folks,

I live in the Philadelphia area. I just had a cath on Friday and found out that my aortic bicuspid valve needs replacing along with an ascending aortic anuerism repair. I had the cath done at Abington Hospital and my cardiologist, who I like very much is affiliated with Abington. I had been seeing a cardiolgist at University of Pennsylvania that I did not care for and switched to this guy at Abington. I know my valve opening is at .9 but did not get a measured size of the anuerism but the doc said it was in the fours. He said if it was a five they would not have let me go home. I am 58 years old and have to make some decisions regarding the type of valve I want. But aside from that I am nervous about finding the right surgeon. At Abington they have Dr. V. Paul Addonizio who I am meeting with soon. He is supposed to be world reknown and is originally from the University of Pa. In fact the doc who did the cath is from U of PA and apparently a lot of the docs at Abington are from Penn.

I am torn because Penn is supposed to be the best in the Philadelphia area but Abington is supposed to be very good as well. How can I evaluate the hospitals and doctors? I don't know where to look for doctor stats and how many surgeries they have performed. Does anyone know where I can start to look for all this information?

I am planning to have surgery in June after school is over.

Thanks for all your help and advice.

Barb

 

[ctyguy]

I can't help you with the Philly area or Abington but I can refer to you the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. They perform more heart procedures than any other hospital in the US. I had a bicuspid aortic valve that was extremely calcified. Like you my valve opening was .9 and the gradient(speed of the blood flow) was about 115 when normal is about 20. My cardiologist considered me a high risk patient and recommended surgery ASAP. If you do consider Cleveland Clinic the surgeon I used was Gosta Pettersson, you can Google him to see his credentials. He is absolutely top notch and specializes in valve repair/replacement.

Given your age, if you go with a bovine valve you could be looking at another procedure when your in your 70s. Some bovine valves are supposed to last 15 to 20 years at this point. However my roommate in the hospital was 77 and he had a valve replacement, 3 bypasses, and a small hole repaired. He had the procedure on Thursday and walked out of the hospital the following Wednesday.

Im 42, 4+ weeks post op, mechanical valve, and am having a pretty uneventful(knock knock) recovery. I chose mechanical because I didn't want to go through this process a 2nd and maybe 3rd time. There are no guarantees that I won't need another procedure in the future but the mechanical valve seemed to give me the best odds of it.

 

[marky]

there are some folks on here That had surgery in the philly area. I considered it, but ended up in Baltimore.
Dr. James Gammy from Univ. of MD is very good. He is a genius at mitral valve repair which is why I went to him.

I think what you need to look at is history, How many surgeries does he do in a year/month?
How long has he done this surgery? Could you talk to some of his former patients? They gave me some numbers to talk to different people who had gone with my suregeon. Of course I had to ask for them.
Also my surgeon was arrogant and told me his statistics without me asking. He didn't have great bedside manners, but that wasn't what I wanted, I wanted someone who was very confident in the surgery.
My cardio has great manners, so I stick with her.
HOpe you find what you are looking for.
Keep asking questions, get 2nd and even 3rd opinions if you need to. You need to feel confident with your choice going into it.

 

[Phyllis]

Barb, you might want to private message nickm3 after you take a look at this thread: http://valvereplacement.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22009&highlight=Abington Maybe he can help with your decision.

 

[Jkm7]

I feel hospital staffing is very important in making surgeon choices. Just my opinion, but for me, I needed to know there is excellent nursing care, top notch residents, physician assistants etc While, of course, your surgeon's genius and talent is critical, so is the after care. The quality of the CICU and step down floor. But almost always, the very best surgeons are found at very excellent hospitals. Not always but much more often than not.

 

[KathyM]

Hi Barb,

I live in NJ and was going to go to U of Penn. Dr. Bavaria and Dr. Acker or something like that are great surgeons. I have decided on NY Presbyterian, because I had just had a brain anuersym coiled there. I felt I wanted to keep all of my records in one place. Also the doctor I am using does this at least 4 times a week. As I said I have heard wonderful things about Bavaria and Acker.

I wish you good luck, my surgery is April 10th.

xoxo
Just
KathyM

 

[Lynlw]

Hi Barb,

I live in NJ and was going to go to U of Penn. Dr. Bavaria and Dr. Acker or something like that are great surgeons. I have decided on NY Presbyterian, because I had just had a brain anuersym coiled there. I felt I wanted to keep all of my records in one place. Also the doctor I am using does this at least 4 times a week. As I said I have heard wonderful things about Bavaria and Acker.

I wish you good luck, my surgery is April 10th.

xoxo
Just
KathyM

We are really lucky to have so many good heart hospitals in the Philly area, Uof P Hahnemann, Lankenau, but I agree Dr Bavaria is one of the best in the area quite a few memeber here went to him, I belive one had surgery at Abington, but went to UofP when he needed another one.. If you didn't like the cardiologist at Uof P maybe you could try a different one there, my son goes to CHOP for his surgeries and alot of the docs he sees are on staff at Uof P too, his cardiologist specializes in adults w/ CHD or I would recomend him. Do a search of Bavaria and maybe you could talk to one of the members thru a PM.

 

[Lynlw]

Also I wanted to recomend make sure that who ever you talk to ask about there expereince w/ Aorta's alot of really good heart surgeons, are well known because of coronary bypass, you need a valve/aorta expert.

 

[nickm3]

Barb,

My situation is vey similar to yours. My Cardiologist is from Abington too, Dr, Muttreja (great guy), I had my first aortic valve replacement done by Addonizio back in 1998. It was a homograft so we knew I would need a redo in 15 years or so. Well it only lasted a bit more than 9 (no fault of Addonizio) but when it came time to pick my surgeon for the redo I thought I should look around a bit. Just so happens that at the same time I was shopping around for a new surgeon so was a close friend of mine who also needed a redo so we were both looking for a surgeon that would be best at a more complex operation. The two us did separate investigations and we both came up with Dr. Bavaria at HUP. We're both 3 months out and have to say that everything went very well for us. It was a bit of a hassle getting down to Philly probably more so for our families to visit but I think everyone involved would say it was worth the extra effort.

My operation also involved the ascending aorta which makes the operation more complex and not that Dr. Addonizio isn't capable but I think that Dr. Bavaria does many more of them and IMO practice makes perfect. He is very busy so I suggest you call and set-up an appointment asap.

If you have any specific questions just ask.

Nick