Surgeon postings critical of St. Jude/Edwards

[Randy & Robyn]

I ran across this thread in a forum for heart surgeons. The postings are very critical of both the St. Jude Regent and Edwards tissue valves. It talks about the struts on the perimount valve being so sharp as to puncture the LV wall of the heart. It also discusses the Regent having walls so thin that they can malform and cause the leaflets to stick. How many other valves have issues like these? Or are these just isolated incidents?

http://www.hsforum.com/forum/thread?table=Valve Dysfunction - failure of Closure

 

[tobagotwo]

Very interesting reading. The Edwards Perimount issue seemed to be in the mitral position, rather than aortic. The St. Jude regent issue was aortic, and seemed to be based on pressure.

Thanks for finding this.

Best wishes,

 

[gijanet]

Randy, thanks.

Randy, thanks.

I tried digging around that site, but it kept saying I was out of boundaries or some such. Probably have to subscribe.................anyway, anything on the carbomedics in mitral position per chance? If so, I hope it is nothing but good stuff. BTW, good to "see" you again. How ya feeling? Hugs. J.

 

[sue943]

It was good to see that some use ATS for preference, I tend to get disheartened to see them mentioned so infrequently.

 

[Randy & Robyn]

I tried digging around that site, but it kept saying I was out of boundaries or some such. Probably have to subscribe.................anyway, anything on the carbomedics in mitral position per chance? If so, I hope it is nothing but good stuff. BTW, good to "see" you again. How ya feeling? Hugs. J.

I'm feeling great, thanks for asking. Extremely busy though which is why you don't hear much from me.

 

[terryj]

Sue, I also wonder why the ATS isn't used more or mentioned more. My husbands doctor who is one of the top heart surgeons at Emory said at the time of my husbands aortic replacement,5 years ago, that ATS is what he recommended to all his patients.

 

[ALCapshaw2]

Randy -

Your signature line* and Public Profile caught my attention.

*Diagnosed with severe aortic regurgitation January 2005
Aortic valve repair at Mayo on October 13, 2005
Two weeks later, repair failed.
Aortic valve replacement with On-x 25mm on February 16, 2006 at Cleveland Clinic by Dr. Gosta Pettersson.

Randy & Robyn
-----------------

Could you tell us more about the "repair failure"?
Obviously it wasn't a catastrophic failure since you are still alive.
I'm curious about the 4 months between your Aortic Repair at Mayo Clinic and the Aortic Replacement at Cleveland Clinic. I can understand not wanting to go back to the same Doc whose repair failed but wonder how you ended up at Cleveland.

Did you refer yourself to CC?
Did another Physician refer you?
Why the 4 month delay?
How did you get Dr. Petterson to use an On-X valve?
(since I know On-X is not yet generally used at CC)

Forgive me for being so nosey.

'AL Capshaw'

 

[Lynlw]

Al, here is a pretty good thread about how he got Cleve to use the ox
http://valvereplacement.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14751

 

[Natanni]

Hey Randy! NICE to see ya Keep in touch, okay?

Interesting (although hair-raising!) thread Randy. I believe one of Nathan's docs that followed him for endocarditis is logged in there, although he didn't post anything, Chandra, the "TEE" man.

 

[Randy & Robyn]

Al,

The repair went south within two weeks of the surgery. My valve was leaking just as badly as before the surgery. Since I was running low-grade fevers every evening my cardiologist suspected endocarditis and put me on massive amounts of antibiotics for several weeks. The leakage never worsened and the cultures were inconclusive.

However, they didn't want to perform the next surgery until they were sure any possible infection was eradicated. There was also no hurry since the leakage was not progressing and I was tolerating it well.

I wanted the best surgeon for my next surgery and after a great deal of research Dr. Pettersson was at the top of the list. I contacted him, told him my story and that I believed the On-X to be the best valve available. He agreed to use it and even mentioned that is was a very well-designed valve with a great deal of potential. After examining my native valve he also believed that I never had endocarditis. The repair failed because it should never have been performed in the first place.

Randy

Randy -

Your signature line* and Public Profile caught my attention.

*Diagnosed with severe aortic regurgitation January 2005
Aortic valve repair at Mayo on October 13, 2005
Two weeks later, repair failed.
Aortic valve replacement with On-x 25mm on February 16, 2006 at Cleveland Clinic by Dr. Gosta Pettersson.

Randy & Robyn
-----------------

Could you tell us more about the "repair failure"?
Obviously it wasn't a catastrophic failure since you are still alive.
I'm curious about the 4 months between your Aortic Repair at Mayo Clinic and the Aortic Replacement at Cleveland Clinic. I can understand not wanting to go back to the same Doc whose repair failed but wonder how you ended up at Cleveland.

Did you refer yourself to CC?
Did another Physician refer you?
Why the 4 month delay?
How did you get Dr. Petterson to use an On-X valve?
(since I know On-X is not yet generally used at CC)

Forgive me for being so nosey.

'AL Capshaw'