Swedish medical or university of wa recommended surgeon .

[70sdiver]

I've been in the waiting room for a long time with aortic stenosis and the time has come . I'm 66 and wanting to find a surgeon that has lots of experience in valve replacement hopeful using Inspirse resilia aortic valve but will leave the final decision to the doctor Any recommendations ?

 

[Chuck C]

Hi 70sdiver.

I'm 66 and wanting to find a surgeon that has lots of experience in valve replacement hopeful using Inspirse resilia

At age 66 that is a very sensible choice, in my view.

Any recommendations ?

Are you looking for surgeon recommendations? It would help if you share where you live.

 

[pellicle]

Hi

Any recommendations ?

perhaps there is something to assist with this question in the subject:

Swedish medical or university of wa recommended surgeon .

Now being from Australia (the list is reasonably international) I just don't know what this means. However as to offer any recommendations I'll say:

• Kimchi is a great natural and healthy thing to have with you in the ward for your return from ICU, its better than the options (discussed in this thread)
• at your age I don't see anything wrong with the choice you've made
• follow all recovery directions on lifting and carrying

Best Wishes

 

[70sdiver]

Hi 70sdiver.



At age 66 that is a very sensible choice, in my view.



Are you looking for surgeon recommendations? It would help if you share where you live.

Yes was looking for surgeon recommendations. I'm also trying to understand where I can find how many surgeries the surgeons perform a year for aortic vales replacement. Is there a particular search area I'm missing on the internet or is this a question I'll need to ask the surgeon?

 

[Chuck C]

Yes was looking for surgeon recommendations. I'm also trying to understand where I can find how many surgeries the surgeons perform a year for aortic vales replacement. Is there a particular search area I'm missing on the internet or is this a question I'll need to ask the surgeon?

Got it. I read you message, but somehow missed the heading. I am assuming by the title that you are in Washington State?

I did find a site that had the number of valve surgeries and the mortality rate, as well as the % of readmissions. It had a lot of other usefull data as well, such as whether the clinic was high or low volume. You want to go to a clinic that handles hundreds of procedures per year, not dozens.

It was remarkable to me how much experience and mortality varied between surgeons. I just searched for it now and was not able to find it on Google. I'll give it another go later today.

This study was for mitral valves, but worth a read , emphasizing the importance of the volume of the clinic and the volume of surgeries of the surgeon.

https://www.consumerreports.org/heart-surgery/how-mitral-valve-heart-surgery-patients-can-get-the-best-results/

 

[70sdiver]

ty I've seen that report but haven't came up with the site with the valve surgeries.

 

[MdaPA]

wanting to find a surgeon that has lots of experience in valve replacement

As it looks like you are in the U.S.:

Below is one site with recommended/well known U.S. heart valve surgeons. You can also use this site to do a "Surgeon Finder" based on location.

Recommended/known U.S. surgeon for their specialties in heart valve treatment.

Also, under most surgeons bio, you may see something like "I have performed approximately over 9,000 cardiac surgeries, of which over 3,000 involved heart valve procedures" which will give you an idea on the number of procedures, at a high-level, they may have done. Once you find a surgeon of interest, try looking up their bio on their hospitals/institutions web site. There you might find further details on the type and number of procedures (e.g. AV replacement, Ross procedures, aortic aneurysm repair, etc) they have performed and what their specialty is.

 

[70sdiver]

Thank you I'll check the site for sure. I am in the USA Washington state.

 

[Chuck C]

This is the website where I found the statistics, such as mortality and volume, of valve/cardiac surgeons.
It was a free website back when I found it 18 months ago, but I see that they now charge $28/year to join and get the info.

It seemed that most of the top surgeons had a mortality rate of 2-3%. Out of curiosity I looked up some of the surgeons in my mom's HMO and they were much higher- like 5-7%. Not all surgeons are equally talented and not all clinics are world class.

Doctors in National - Cardiac Surgery - National

Doctors in National - Cardiac Surgery

www.checkbook.org

 

[dick0236]

[QUOTE="Chuck C, post: 916238, member: 17466".
It seemed that most of the top surgeons had a mortality rate of 2-3%. Out of curiosity I looked up some of the surgeons in my mom's HMO and they were much higher- like 5-7%. Not all surgeons are equally talented and not all clinics are world class.
[/QUOTE]

The TOP surgeons normally do not do "run of the mill" valve replacement.......they have graduated to heart or heart-lung replacement.......etc, the real exotic stuff. One of my surgeons was finishing up his residency at UofKy......I last talked to him by phone 8-10 years ago and I asked him if he still did valve replacements.....he chuckled and said "No, I do the challenging stuff now and let the simple stuff, like valve replacement, up to the junior guys." At the time I talked with him he was a Chief of Staff at the Texas Heart Insitute. Obviously, he did one hell of a job for me since I've lived 55 years with that valve. Now, at 86 I am dying of heart disease........but the OLD valve is still chugging along. Unless you have some kiind of "special" problem, there are thousands of competent surgeons at one of the competent surgical centers that does heart surgery.......very, very well.

Look at the Forrest and not a specific tree.

PS: my odds of a poor outcome were 7-10% in 1967

 

[70sdiver]

You guys are great thank you. I broke my neck (c-4) in 2007 and that surgery was pretty rough ,took me a year to get back to feeling decent. I'm trying to help sway the odds for a good and hopefully quick recovery. I have to admit I'm scared .