New Heart Surgery Procedure

[Pater]

Hi Rip,

I was at the seminar in WF on the 26th-28th, and I mentioned something about a fairly new heart valve repair/replacement procedure, performed by Dr. Doolabh at UT Southwestern. I’m writing because I figured you’d be interested in the new procedure and the patient’s ability to recover MUCH faster than the typical heart valve procedure. I mentioned that a good friend of mine was having this procedure to have her mitral valve repaired (ended up not needing it to be replaced, just repaired) as compared to a similar procedure my own father had a few months prior, where they had to crack him open and wire him shut to replace a bicuspid aortic valve (I realize these are probably different procedures, but I’m also not completely sure).

Dr. Doolabh is, I believe, the only person in the country that performs this specific procedure (and I may be wrong about that) where he makes an approximate 4” incision, laterally, in between the ribs, under the patient’s armpit, and repairs/replaces the valve himself, without the use of a robot. I’m not sure if he makes all heart repairs this way or just the mitral valve, but because this procedure is so much less invasive the patient is able to recover at a much faster rate and return to normal, daily function (training!) much sooner, without the residual effects of having the titanium wire to hold their sternum together. She was sent home after only three days post-op, and probably could have gone home sooner. She is supposed to be able to resume “life as usual” in less than two weeks.

There’s another option available for people who need heart surgery; one that will allow them to get back under the bar much sooner. I’d say it’s worth looking into if you’re someone who might need this type of procedure.

[Mark Rippetoe]

An interesting development. Note that it was not developed in Venezuela.