Managing and treating mitral valve disease have both changed radically over the past few years and now include transcatheter as well as surgical approaches. What does the future hold for mitral valve repair and replacement? During the most recent STS Annual Meeting, Vinod Thourani, MD, asked that question of Steven F. Bolling, MD, Gorav Ailawadi, MD, and Wilson Y. Szeto, MD. They also discussed new tools and technologies, making sure that cardiothoracic surgeons are involved on the care team, and training with transcatheter techniques.
Cardiovascular disease is the #1 killer of people around the world, with approximately 18 million deaths annually, according to the World Health Organization. Treatment options for heart disease include lifestyle changes, stenting, and surgery. But which option is best and for which patients? Thomas E. MacGillivray, MD (Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX), moderates a panel discussion with Jennifer S. Lawton, MD (Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, MD), John D.
The FDA recently expanded the indications for transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) to include patients at low surgical risk. But experts are urging caution about which low-risk patients should undergo TAVR until more information is gathered. At the STS Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Joseph E. Bavaria, MD, explored recent clinical trials with Tsuyoshi Kaneko, MD, Michael J. Reardon, MD, and Vinod Thourani, MD.
Dr. Thomas E. MacGillivray explains how the ISCHEMIA trial does not negate or even contradict the multiple previous clinical trials demonstrating the superiority of surgical revascularization over medical therapy (or PCI) in patients with specific anatomic patterns of coronary artery disease.
The article "Surgical Volume Matters When It Comes to Repair of Primary MR" highlights a presentation from Dr. Vinay Badhwar at TCT 2019 that showed the volume of mitral valve repair or replacement at both the hospital and surgeon levels was inversely related to the success of the mitral valve repair rate.
Dr. James R. Edgerton describes the article, what it means for the cardiothoracic surgery specialty, and his view on the topic of a volume-outcome relationship in mitral valve surgery.
Endocarditis is one of the most challenging infections to treat for cardiothoracic surgeons, and the opioid epidemic has led to a staggering increase in the number of infective endocarditis cases seen in the United States. Dr. Robbin G. Cohen talks with some of the world’s leading experts in treating valve disease and endocarditis—Drs. Joseph E. Bavaria, Eric E.
Robbin G. Cohen talks with some of the world’s leading experts in treating valve disease and endocarditis—Drs. Joseph E. Bavaria, Eric E. Roselli, and Scott Goldman—about when surgeons should get involved in the treatment process, when and how long to treat with antibiotics, the best candidates for surgery, and the ethics surrounding treating IV drug abusers.
