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supermauri

Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2018
Messages
6
Location
Padova ( IT )
Hi everyone ! my name is Maurizio, 52's , living in Padova ( city pretty close to Venice ) .
I've been around this forum since 2018... collecting so many fruitful informations. A special thanks to Pellicle who gave me the opportunity to cross check what I was doing with my INR self managements ; very well ! I come to the conclusion that we are in the same page, good to state that !
Let me give a quick back ground about my story : had diagnosed with BAV at 15's when I was playing rugby. Valve was continent ( no leaking ) so they didn't stop me playing but need monitoring every year its evolution. So I did regulary.
But the bad thing was the "born" of an aortic aneurism at the root. It kept growing very slowly until the day it reached 4,8 cm. nm . It happened on March 2016 and cardiologist sentence was " it's time to pass the ball to the heart surgeon".
Since it was an elective surgery I had time to consult 5 different "famous" surgeons spread in North Italy. In that precise moment began my nigthmare...
Let me say in advance that my bicuspid valve was still working perfectly and no sign of degeneration yet; that's the real question point ! is the valve going to stand in good status for the rest of my active life or will sooner or later degenerate ? Reason why the following consulted surgeons offered different approaches.
One surgeon offered to go with Ross procedure ( by fixing the aorta aneurism with an artificial prothesis ) and don't touch my valve.
Another surgeon offered a variant of Ross procedure by replacing my aorta segment with a natural animal tissue and don't touch my valve .
Third surgen offered to be part of a new procedure called Ozaki technique which were adopted in Japane since 10 years and just started in US few years before. This procedure simply amazed me ! it consist on rebilding the valve using our own pericardio tissue.
The other two surgeons suggested both the long term worldwide adopted Bentall procedure replacing at once aorta and valve.
After two months , close to a nervous breakdown... I finally went for Bentall and chosed for mechanical valve.
Right now ( after 6 years ) I might say that my little regret was not being brave enough to go for Ozaki... it seems performing very well base on actual data.
Is there anyone here got Ozaki ? just curious to know
Thanks again to all members willing to keep sharing their experiences ! it's really and added value to all of us !
 
Hi and welcome.

I can't offer any information about the Ozaki, isn't that for pediatric use? Anyway. what I can say is "if you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with.



and anyway, hopefully you wouldn't want an exchange ;-)
 
Ciao Maurizio, benvenuto!
One surgeon offered to go with Ross procedure ( by fixing the aorta aneurism with an artificial prothesis ) and don't touch my valve.
Another surgeon offered a variant of Ross procedure by replacing my aorta segment with a natural animal tissue and don't touch my valve .
The Ross procedure is where your healthy pulmonary valve is "switched" and replaces your diseased aortic valve and a tissue valve (e.g. cadaver, porcine) goes where the pulmonary valve was.

I'm don't understand the reference to the Ross procedure where the aortic and pulmonary valves are not touched. Was this something different/new being offered?

Ross Procedure

BTW, my wife and I visit Padova often when in Italy and especially love the Basilica di Sant'Antonio (our prayers there have gotten my wife safely through 3 OHS's)!
 
Hi and welcome.

I can't offer any information about the Ozaki, isn't that for pediatric use? Anyway. what I can say is "if you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with.



and anyway, hopefully you wouldn't want an exchange ;-)

Ozaki is not specifically for pediatric use .
Since I wouldn't any future exchange... I'm actually fall in love with mine 😏
 
Ciao Maurizio, benvenuto!


The Ross procedure is where your healthy pulmonary valve is "switched" and replaces your diseased aortic valve and a tissue valve (e.g. cadaver, porcine) goes where the pulmonary valve was.

I'm don't understand the reference to the Ross procedure where the aortic and pulmonary valves are not touched. Was this something different/new being offered?

Ross Procedure

BTW, my wife and I visit Padova often when in Italy and especially love the Basilica di Sant'Antonio (our prayers there have gotten my wife safely through 3 OHS's)!
Really sorry for my mistake ! at that time I was overwhelmed by so many info... and now I recovered the wrong "file" from my memory. It was David 1 , sorry again .
 
So glad you love and visit Padova. My house is next to the Basilica , I hear the bells ringing continuously...but instead of disturbing those are spiritually relaxing.
Next time you come, just let me know !

BTW, my wife and I visit Padova often when in Italy and especially love the Basilica di Sant'Antonio (our prayers there have gotten my wife safely through 3 OHS's)!
[/QUOTE]
 
Really sorry for my mistake ! at that time I was overwhelmed by so many info... and now I recovered the wrong "file" from my memory. It was David 1 , sorry again .
No problema! Just wanted to make sure it was correct so no one gets confused.

I finally went for Bentall and chosed for mechanical valve.
What hospital did you have this done at in Italy (you may want to consider adding it to your bio)? I'm trying to keep a list of good heart hospitals in Italy in the event my wife (or even me!) needs to visit one in our travels there.
 
I did Bentall at Azienda Ospedaliera Carlo Poma ( in Mantova ) as at that time the chief of cardiac surgery ( Dr. Rambaldini ) had improved the efficiency of bentall procedure by drastically reducing the operation time ( in fact many heart surgeon equipe went there from Japan, US, Europe to learn how do that ).
Other 3 very good are : Centro Cardiologico Monzino ( in Monza/Milan ) , Ospedale San Raffaele in Milan and Centro Galucci di Cardiochirurgia in Padova.
As you may have noticed all of those are in North Italy, please don't get me wrong as I don't want discriminate Sout Italy Hospital... but the best in term of technology, skills and efficiency is proven that it is in North Italy ; that's the reason why we have a big pressure of people from South coming here for take care their health.


What hospital did you have this done at in Italy (you may want to consider adding it to your bio)? I'm trying to keep a list of good heart hospitals in Italy in the event my wife (or even me!) needs to visit one in our travels there.
[/QUOTE]
 
When there is clearly a winner procedure in repairing something in medicine then everyone will do that procedure. In heart surgery there is clearly no perfect procedure and no winner.
The procedure you had, placing a mechanical valve and repairing your aorta was a good choice then and still now. You are very likely to be one and done. No more surgeries. But at a cost - warfarin.
All of your other choices more than likely would require more procedures. So like many other discussions on this forum it comes down to warfarin vs multiple procedures. Pick your poison.
When my aorta was 6.5 cm and needed replacement at age 58 I had already had two previous aortic valve surgeries. The surgeon said “you don’t want someone in your chest a fourth time” so I had a mechanical valve placed.
Today we have other options such as TAVR to repair aortic valves so the decision process in picking a procedure has gotten more complicated.
So the point is there is no “right” or ideal procedure.
As Pellicle said love the one you have.
 
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