mechanical aortic valve or ross procedure?

[crzylolo27]

re tissue valve

re tissue valve

My cardio and surgeon are both aware of my lifestyle and drinking habits and neither has said anything about that. Usually I go out with friends on a Fri. and/or Sat. and just drink beer...of course depending on the night/morning...it could be 6 beers or 12...lol I was born with a bicuspid aortic valve and my aorta was enlarged at birth as well....or some kind of defect....forgot exactly but have it written down. My weightlifting 3 to 4 times a week is probably what speed my surgery up...they always thought I would be well into my mid to late 40s when surgery came around. I talked to the last surgeon last Monday and I am going to go with him. Dr. Ryan at Presby. of Dallas. We are going in with the intention to do the Ross and as a backup plan...he is suggesting the latest stentless valve. I will have another echo this Thurs. and if my heart has gotten worse in the last month...we will schedule surgery before the end of this month....if it is stable or even gotten better now that I am on lisinopril...we will schedule the surgery around the second week of June. The stentless valve made me a little nervous due to the fact of it giving out but according to the studies...this valve has been used for the last 12 years and has a 98% success rate with no calcification/wearing out yet. Of course there are no guarntees that any of the choices I make will be a one time OHS...but from talking to Dr. Ryan...at my age...and heart...I would more than likely be looking at another surgery in my lifetime no matter what. True the mechanical valves last a life time...but it may not last a life time in my heart. I know it is a risk to have my back up as a stentless...with the guarantee of another surgery...but if I get 15 to 25 years out of it and having a better chance of having a normal lifestyle for those years.....it is pretty likely that the advancements will be in place for a better mechanical or stentless valve and may not be the painfull OHS that it is today. Like I said...I know it's a risk...but at the age of 31...it would be nice to have that option in 20 years. Plus...if another operation is coming in my life time...I would rather have to go through it again at the age of 45-55....than have a mechancial replaced at the age of 60-65. Now I'm sure I have just stirred some debates up with this post...lol

In response to This post . I am basically in the exact same boat you are. i will be 31 in August and have spoke with my surgeon for possible surgery in September and I am the same. I go out on fri or sat. and have drinks with friends which really isn't a problem because i can go with out alcohol. although i dont see the RP procedure an option because of the complexity of the surgery. I feel that the Mechanical valve wont always work although still concidering the ON-X valve but i feel that the tissue valve might be the best choice. I had surgery for ASD repair in 1981 and never had heart issues until this past year. Im still in limbo with my choice but a doctor friend of mine made a good suggestion. "Is to possibly get the tissue valve which might last 10 yrs. In that time a much more advanced valve might have been introduced where you dont need blood thinners". I was just adding my 2 cents since i am in the same boat minus the RP option. My dr never brought it up. So anyways since you will be in surgery before me. i would love to hear from you afterward

Thanx
Carlos

 

[rottrod]

I was born with a heart murmur which basically is a bicuspid valve. I am 5'9 and weigh 158 and 31 years old. I'm in great shape and work out about 3 to 4 times a week with cardio and weight lifting. I am not showing any signs of fatigue...well none that are obvious to me...since I was born with a murmur...I really don't know what slight fatigue is...lol But after getting my check up...which was put off for too long...we have discovered that my aortic valve is starting to catch up with me and there are concerns to the current size of my left side of the heart. I have talked to a surgeon and the two options we discussed are mechanical valve replacement or the other...which he is recommending...the Ross Procedure. I have read all about the mechanical valve replacement and the need/requirement to be on blood thinning medication for the rest of my life. I am kind of skeptical about that given my age and active lifestyle. But I am not too sure about the Ross Procedure either because with a homograft valve....I don't want to worry about surgery again in the next 20 or so years. Just trying to get feel and other opinions on what some of you guys might suggest. Since we are the ones actually having to go through this or have gone through this. Thanks

I'm in a similar situation except that I'm 47. I will be following your story closely and listening to what you hear from others. Please let us know what your second/third opinions are.
The folks here seem to be really well informed and thanks to them I'm a lot less aprehensive about the inevitable.

I'll be thinking of you and praying about your decision and of course, outcome.

 

[mmarshall]

I'm in a similar situation except that I'm 47. I will be following your story closely and listening to what you hear from others. Please let us know what your second/third opinions are.
The folks here seem to be really well informed and thanks to them I'm a lot less aprehensive about the inevitable.

I'll be thinking of you and praying about your decision and of course, outcome.

I actually had my surgery about 2 months ago. I talked to 3 different surgeons and the plan was to do the ross procedure with the medtronics stentless tissue valve as a backup....the surgeon i went with was the one i was most comfortable with and explained everything to me the best. he recommended that we do the ross and if it can't be done then he wanted to use the "latest and greatest" tissue valve. so yea...i ended up with a tissue valve. it will actually be 9 weeks post op this tuesday...i feel great and am so glad i got this done...definitely the worst part of surgery for me was the stress and worrying done before it was done. let me know if you have any questions or need any help with this fun process we have/will go through...lol

 

[MarkU]

I'm in a similar situation except that I'm 47. I will be following your story closely and listening to what you hear from others. Please let us know what your second/third opinions are.
The folks here seem to be really well informed and thanks to them I'm a lot less aprehensive about the inevitable.

I'll be thinking of you and praying about your decision and of course, outcome.

I had my AVR at 47. They gave me a choice between mechancial or tissue. I didn't know anything about the Ross procedure until I found this site a few months afterwards, not that it would have affected my choice for a mechanical. I chose a mechanical weighing with a lower (hopefully) probability of additional surgeries versus the "inconvenience" of Coumadin.
Mark

 

[mmarshall]

I had my AVR at 47. They gave me a choice between mechancial or tissue. I didn't know anything about the Ross procedure until I found this site a few months afterwards, not that it would have affected my choice for a mechanical. I chose a mechanical weighing with a lower (hopefully) probability of additional surgeries versus the "inconvenience" of Coumadin.
Mark

that was my line of thinking for my back up to the ross procedure....i didn't want to deal with coumadin but if it meant that i did not have to have surgery again...i was ready to just deal with coumadin if it happened. once i found out that my odds of needing another surgery within my lifetime no matter what choice i made were pretty high...i went tissue thinking that i would rather live my current lifestyle for the next 10,15,20 or how ever long this valve lasts. but that is just me...deciding on a valve really depends on your situation. if i was in my late 40s or early 50s....i think i would have leaned more to a mechanical as my backup. but also talk to the surgeons and what they recommend....my surgeon actually said he could do the mechanical if i wanted to as a backup but he recommended the type of tissue valve i have now.