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Well, yes and no. If there is no cutting (which means no bleeding) the chance of infection in the mouth is virtually zero and, thus, the chance of infection spreading to the heart is more or less non-existent. However, dental work often produces unexpected cuts in the mouth. It is for this...

Excellent! Very happy to hear the good news.

I just want to strongly echo the sentiments already put forth: you need to request a infectious disease doctor immediately if one is not already handling the case. Endocarditis (bacterial infection of the heart) can be very tricky to treat; it is critical that one determine the bacteria causing...

Hi Pizza-fan, Just as pathfinder, karylnn and the others have said life expectancy most certainly doesn't mean a death sentence -- it is just the average. I'm completely making this up, but let's pretend life-expectancy for a healthy 25 year old is 76 years. For a 25 year old individual...

Adam, I agree. No one, including the authors of that study, are in any way whatsoever insinuating that one should not have aortic valve replacement surgery. Even with the overly pessimistic life-expectancies given in the study they are significantly higher than one's life expectancy if they do...

Hi Gina, Your cardio may be right. At this point in time, your life-expectancy may be similar (although I doubt quite as high) as non-MVR patients. However, the study under discussion measured life expectancy from immediately before the first AVR onwards. If I remember correctly you have had...

Hi Pizza-fan, I read over the study that you posted. The objecitve of the study was to develop a statistical (and thus unbiased) model of patient outcomes based on the type of AVR undergone. They simulated different age groups because, as we know, operational outcome, valve durability, and...

Yes, aspirin may help to lower the risk of developing blood clots in all individuals (not just those with a non native heart valve). Many physicians recommend it to all patients over 50 years of age...whereas it may lower the risk of heart attack and stroke. It is widely prescribed in the 81mg...

Hi Strech, From what I understand...Toprol loweres blood pressure and the "force" with which the heart beats. By doing this it lowers the burden on the neo-aortic valve and thus reduces the incidence of dilation in this valve. The neo-aortic valve has a tendency to dilate because the pulmonary...

My personal sentiments when I was in the hospital were along the same lines as David Fortune's. After having people in my room all day long I was ready for everyone to leave by 10 pm so I could have some privacy and get some rest. I also knew that they would have a much better sleep at home then...

Congratulations on your recovery Stretch. It's funny that you would post this now because it was just last week when I was thinking that I was finally 100% or better. And if you remember my surgery was about a week before yours. So maybe it is about 12 weeks til one feels close to 100%. What...

The chances that your symptoms have any connection to the lizard bite are very, very remote.

Yes Yes Ever since my first surgery death has never been far from my mind. I have a somewhat philosophically inquisitive mind so the "big questions" have never been far from my thoughts. There have been an almost innumerable amount of excellent literary works that deal with one's realization...

Hi Bob, My understanding was that toprol XL was a slow release medication. If you take 50mg once it takes approximately 24 hours for all of that 50mg to be released into the body. As such, I don't see how splitting into two doses would make any difference in terms of dizzyness since the same...

Hi, I have a homograft pulmonary valve that was implanted when I was 17. You do not need to take any anti-rejection drugs for homografts. Taking them has not been shown to increase valve longevity at all. In general, pulmonary homografts have been shown to have good longevity in long-term...

I have switched between metoprolol and toprol xl with no difference in efficacy or any side effects. I am on a 50mg/day dose and tolerate either very well. Brad

Very glad to hear that the second surgery was a success. Brad

What sad news. I will be thinking of her. Thank you for the update and keep them coming. Brad

Hi Jared, I would suggest that you contact Dr. Stetzler, Dr. Ryan, or Dr. Pettersson to get an answer to your question about your viability for the RP. They would know better than anyone one this board about the options when the patient has aortic root enlargement. If you do go with the RP I...

Hi Bill, The pseudo aneurysm is most likely occuring in the homograft tissue that was implanted. These pseudo aneurysms tend to occur much more commonly in homograft tissue then in one's own natural tissue, likely due to some sort of degradation that occcurs between the death of the donor and...