Mitral Valve Surgeon in Pennsylvania

[rbacher]

Can anyone recommend a surgeon for mitral valve repair or replacement in the Philadelphia area? Does anyone have any experience with Dr Michael Acker at University of Pennsylvania?

I am 54 years old, live in Lancaster PA, and am at the point where I have to get surgery. I tried to get the Evalve clip at Univ of Penn, rather than go through conventional OHS, but the location where I have regurgitation lies on the sides of my mitral valve (rather than in the center), and the cardiologist running the Evalve study there believes the clip won't work in my case.

Another thread on this forum discussed mitral valve surgeons, and the names of Dr Cosgrove at the Cleveland Clinic and Dr Gammie at Univ of Maryland were mentioned with positive comments, and they are not all that far away. Still, I'd rather do it in Philadelphia because it's closer and I have family there, but I'd dearly love to hear something about Dr Acker and/or the mitral valve team at Univ of Penn before I make the final decision. Thanks for any help anyone can give me.

 

[Christine]

i'll ask my friend - he's a nurse practictioner.. granted not a cardio, but he interned in philly (50+yr old career change in his 40's) - he knows his stuff.. almost to the point, i have to tell that I don't want to hear all the contraindications of such and such.. but he has told me in the past to go to philly if i ever need surgery.. I had mine in dallas when i lived there.. have you also considered Lehigh Valley - they have a great hospital for everything - including cardio.

chris

 

[rbacher]

I considered Lancaster General Hospital. I live right here, and I think they do have good cardio surgeons, but several people said go to Philadelphia, including a colleague who has had several heart surgeries. To me the criteria is who does this kind of surgery with frequency? Anyone gets better with practice. I just joined this forum, but I gather from other posts on this subject (selecting a surgeon) that a surgeon who does 100 to 200 surgeries of the kind you need (mitral valve in my case) is the best bet. I am fearful that the cardio surgeons in Lancaster and Lehigh Valley may do a mitral valve repair one or two times a month. Which leads to a question -- Is it awkward to come right out and ask a surgeon, "How many mitral valve repair surgeries have you done?" and "How often do you do them?"

 

[Christine]

I don't know how many they do.. but I know Lehigh (not lancaster general) is excelent.. right up there with philly.. i live in pottstown.. and God help if anything ever happens.. already had one ER trip to potstown hospital.. will not go back if I can help it.. pheonixville is bragging about their new and improved cardio programs... sorry, not enough history and/or hospital too small.. my friend is going away for the holiday.. but i'll ask him next week who in philly.. when is your scheduled surgery.. my cardio appt is coming up in august. i can ask my dr who he would recommend.

chris

p.s.. yes, light day at work.. all my collection contacts are on vac for the holiday.. makes for a long day

 

[marky]

Rbacher..
I am not far from you (York).. I searched Hershey, Philly, and Md.. and I ended up with Dr. Gammie at the Univ. of MD. I talked to people who had the procedure done at all three places..and I personally felt the best with Gammie.
I also met with Dr. Paye from Hershey.

I was VERY happy with him.
He Repaired a valve that otherwise would have needed replaced..he took a lot of time and went back to it 3x before it was repaired.
He also does many min. invasive..but I opted out of that for various reasons.

I hope this helps somewhat..
It is never an easy decision.

 

[Christian]

I'd go to Cleveland. My wife and I live in Pittsburgh and had a lot of folks recommend hospitals in Philly for her surgery. But we chose Dr. Cosgrove in Cleveland and realized "best case scenario" results.

There's a hotel right across the street from the hospital. It's really convenient for family.

 

[joanne6]

Another Gammie fan

Another Gammie fan

I am lucky to live in Baltimore. We have at least 5 hospitals with excellent valve surgeons. I found Dr. Gammie after reading an article about him in the Washington Post. My cardio was not in favor of minimally invasive valve surgery. He is not my cardio any longer. Dr. Gammie literally saved my life. He also has a very high rate of repair vs replacement ( close to 95% when I first met him last summer). The team at Univ of MD. is excellent. I thought the ICU there was superb. You really aren't that far from Balt. I was in Lancaster for outlet mall shopping a few wks ago. Anyway, I have now given you my 2 cents. I only want the best for all of my VR family.

 

[nebtargh]

I too am thinking about Dr. Acker. Let me know what you come up with.

 

[MelissaM]

DO NOT - I repeat - DO NOT have your surgery done at Lancaster General (sorry to offend anyone affiliated with there). My family lives just outside of Lancaster in Pequea, and I ended up in Lancaster General after having had my surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. There were a lot of little nitpicky things I could mention (like taking 13 sticks to find a vein), but the part that really rankled me was getting moved from the telemetry floor into ICU because they didn't have any recussitation equipment on telemetry, should I code.

What kind of hospital doesn't have a crash cart on telemetry?!? I was in from a simple arrythmia - SVT - not life threatening in the least! And there are few things worse than being in ICU if you don't belong there.

Dumb, Dumb, Dumb!

If you can, go to CCF (it was a six hour drive from Cleveland to Lancaster - we took it in two days). If you want something closer, go to Baltimore.

Melissa

 

[Meghan]

I'm going to copy a reply I just sent to another thread, since it's relevant here as well.

One of my cousins went through surgery for the mitral valve in Philadelphia about a year ago. I am fairly certain it was through U. of Pa. His surgeon was Micheal Ackerman.

My cousin ended up having to go through 2 surgeries. Initially a non-invasive valve repair through the side was attempted. About a month after surgery my cousins were told that the repair had not worked at all and he needed full OHS for MVR with a mechanical valve, pretty much immediatly. They did a few weeks later and he has recovered wonderfully and more quickly than expected. Being on coumadin has not proved to be a problem and he's doing quite well now. I'm not sure exactly how old my cousin is but I think early -mid 30s.

so all in all - the repair experience was not good but the replacement is working. From all I know they were happy with the surgery experience in Philadelphia and the tough part was the commute, as they live in central Pa. My cousin's wife did say that having a hotel directly across the street from the hospital to stay in was good, making it very easy for her to visit, be close by for peace of mind, etc.