Mitral Valve Surgery: What Should Patients Know? (Interview with Dr. Vaughn Starnes) 

I'm 59, and had mitral valve replacement, after being able to barely make it to the top of my stairs. I had 1 Dr. tell me I was ok, and go home, come see me again in 6 months. I didn't listen to him and went to the ER at Sentara Heart Hospital in Norfolk VA or there about. BEST thing I could have done. They caught it early and replaced the valve. I feel fine and even jump on the trampoline with a 5 yr old. Was the 1st time I'd had any major surgery. Never even a broken bone. Took almost a month for me to get out of the hospital, due to a complication with water retention and the need to have another tube, reinstalled to drain fluid, but other than 1 nurse, wanting to treat me like a sack of tatters when she'd come in to get me up, I had a GREAT experience. Anybody needing this done, expect a catheter to pee, a mid line for blood draws, take your own CPAP machine and a pen with your 6 foot cell phone cord. Play Diablo 3 and I'll meet you there for help with dementia or simple old age memory issues. There's a big crowd of older folks who play this game and it's easy to log into and get something done w/ just a few minutes to play. The repetition of the game is the point for memory issues, but it's fun and has seasons where you can get a new gaming experience every 3 or 4 months. Other than that you'll be bored to tears at the hospital while waiting for someone to come help you walk the halls or get up to go to the bathroom. I'd recommend getting your new heart valve, soon as possible. My experience was a great 1 and I wish you the best for your full recovery. Best thing I've done for my family in years! They'll have me for many years to come thanks to my choice for a mechanical valve replacement.

Eight days ago I had a Pascal Ace mitral valve implant. I was a bit apprehensive about the whole procedure, especially since my particular valve had only been recently approved from the Edwards Laboratories. I found that not only did the Community Heart and Vascular hospital in my city, provide TOP NOTCH care, but the procedure went well with skilled hands and much prayer. I'm home a day later with relatively NO shortness of breath and optimistic outlook. Waiting for legs/ankles' swelling to subside and some normalcy to return in some other areas. Humbled beyond expression to think that I have a new lease on the rest of my life at 81 years old. Praise God!

I remember Dr. Starnes! He did 3 of my 4 surgeries on my mitral valve back in 1997 at children’s hospital. All in the same year to.

Adam, I have been waiting for this! Thank you...I remain so grateful! I took notes..am seeing someone about this Nov. 2nd..I feel much better equipped with some knowledge, so I can make, with my doctor, a more educated decision concerning my particular situation. You remain a valuable and reliable source for all things valve related! Again, thank you so much.

It must be so fun to be a surgeon! Fixing people up!

Dr, Starnes has saved many. Mr. X

Thank You so much for this video! It is a Godsend! My son, 38 years old has been diagnosed with Mitral valve regurgitation. Because of his weight he would be considered high risk although he does not have any other comorbidities like diabetes, however he does have high blood pressure. It is good to know that he does not necessarily have to have open heart surgery and go on heart bypass-which was an idea that scared the bejesus out of me. It is good to know there are other options BEFORE talking to a heart surgeon, who may want to push their own agenda. It’s good to have non-biased information. THANK YOU!

Thank you very much for sharing this video. I am 62 years old scheduled to have mitral valve surgery on October 17th. After watching your video, I feel pretty much at ease about the surgery. God bless you❤

Just had my aortic valve replaced for the second time by dr Starnes, got a tissue valve this time. Had the st Jude mechanical valve for 20 years. Dr Starnes and his team are amazing. 3 weeks out from surgery and doing great!

Thank You for this VIDEO!!

Dr.Starnes is the best! He did my surgery four years ago I will always be grateful to him ❤

Thank you for this very informative and reassuring educational video

I just had open heart surgery in Mexico last spring. Fixed the mitral valve and had a maze procedure. It was an amazing experience and now I work with my cardiologist to let people know about his team.

Thx 4 ur valuable information

Thank you so much for this video, I currently have severe MV regurgitation with a flail leaflet & I am having an MV replacement next week. I have had a heart murmur with mild regurgitation, I am now 62 I have eosinophillic asthma & Paget’s disease of bone I am otherwise fit & healthy, I eat well, I’m a healthy weight & I have never smoked. My team of cardiologists & pulmonologist think that I had endocarditis late last year when I had severe pneumonia after a minor rhino virus; I was hospitalised for 3 weeks & my mitral valve symptoms appeared when I was in hospital. I had all of the symptoms except for swelling of my ankles.

Dr Starns just repaired my 20 month old son's mitral valve. I'm so thankful it was a repair and not a replacement!

Great questions Adam

This is what im looking for, I need Dr. Starnes now, i diagnose mitral valve severe regurgitation, im from philippines, but no chance of seeing Dr. Starnes, im a single mom and also a PWD, and i dont have enough finances to use for my medical. my 2D echo result got me more anxious and i had sestamibi test yesterday, and i dont know the result yet, How i wish Dr. Starnes help me and sponsor me to go to US to undergo surgery of mitral valve, I was hoping and praying for it. 🙏🙏🙏 God bless, thank you for you program that tackle this kind of topic.

What an outstanding human being. He operated 2x on a family member.

I stayed a week in hospital and I had no blood transfusion

This helped out a lot going thru this with my mom hope she has the option to do a Cather she already has a pace maker. They wanna do surgery 2mar but havnt spoke with Doctor at least I get to ask about all these procedures

Just had Mitral and Tricuspid Valve Repair at the Cleveland in London, now I understand all the bits that hurt - I was in ICU for 6 days!!!

Thank you for this great channel and content. I have just had my mitral valve repaired - using minimally invasive procedure. My valve went from a small leak to severe within 5 years. I kick myself for not getting it checked out each year with an echocardiogram. I strongly recommend this check up. I went downhill over the past 6-12 months with fatigue, headaches, dizzy, funny sensation in my chest with odd heart beats from time to time. I went for a check up and was on the operating table within 3 weeks. Its a scary thought but as your posts show there are so many passionate experts that have dedicated their career's to such procedures - I found Dr Galloway at NYI Langone in NYC. Thankfully its a low risk procedure if you are in good health and I am so grateful to have had my valve repaired before damage occurred. Your channel helps prepare for the procedure and lets people know this is a common and repairable conditions. Thank you

I Had a mechanical aortic valve replaced on Aug.24, 1974. I had the Surgery at Birmingham Heart Center in Birmingham, Alabama, by Dr. Kirklin. He us one of the first Broyk Sherin valve. I have been on Coumadin since then. I check my INR once a week. I would be happy to answer any questions about my experience.

Thank you Dr. Vaughn Starnes you did my open heart surgery in CHLA and after I woke I never got the chance to thank you

Excellent.

I had the Osaki procedure. Sure beats being on Warfarin with mechanical valve

I have severe mitral valve regurgitation, recently had a heart cath and TEE and and am now being scheduled with cardio thoracic surgeons to have a robotic heart valve repair which will be a less invasive procedure than having it done open chest. I’m super grateful that that option and technology is available!!

Excellent interview, its a shame I am unable to get my mom treated by Dr. Starnes.

Thank you for informative understandable topic for Mitral Valve replacement, have been informed of necessary surgery

My dad was diagnosed of rhomatiod heart disease and was advised a mitral valve replacement surgery. I and my younger ones has been going through alot because we are struggling to come up with the money for the surgery surgery. I Wanted to know more about the surgery and I stumbled on this, thanks for this video.

I have artial flutter which lead to dx of mvp and mvr. Currently going through testing to see the extent and what my treatment plan will be and doing some of my own research so I know what to expect. Thank you for this video.

went in on Oct 13th, 2020 for mitral repair, I was in the ICU for 2 days because they had to then put in a pacemaker on the 14th, most amount of any pain killer I needed was tylenol for maybe the first 3 days, after that I didnt need it. Feeling better each day, still very sore, cant sleep well, but the worst was how walking the hospital hall was like dragging a block of cement, just getting up and walking even to the bathroom was a big chore and let me somewhat out of breath. I think by day 3, I did a 900 foot walk and back, it was hard and I had to slow down some but I did it. Some may be related to the pacemaker needing final adjustments too, but expect to feel better each day. The worst was the laryngitus I had and that still comes and goes.

On May 25th of last year I had my mitral valve replaced with a pig valve. I was born with mitral valve prolapse (mvp), but never had any issues with it, except occasionally feeling a fullness in my heart when my upper chamber was getting too much blood pushed back into it. These “ fullness feelings” didn’t last but a few seconds. Other than that, nothing else happened to me. All doctor’s visits I was asked, do you know you have a heart murmur? Some would even invite their colleagues into my examination room to listen to my heart, because the murmur was so intense! 😂 through the years I had echo cardiograms and results were fine. Just mvp, no damage to my valve. However, March of 2022, I have my yearly echo test done and my cardiologist says my valve has changed and he wants to do a TEE test as well as a CAT scan. After the TEE, he says I need either a repair or a replacement of the valve. I am just amazed at how quickly that much dam- age occurred in a year’s time! Personally, I think it was either the 2 Covid Vaccines I got or the virus itself, which I had once and got only a mild case of it! I live in AL and had the surgery done in Birmingham. My surgeon was Dr. John Richardson-he’s great and I can’t say enough wonderful things about him! If he could he’d repair it, otherwise he’d replace it with a pig valve. Said he’d done many of these, and I probably be in the hospital 5 days at the most. He would put a catheter in my right groin and put a little camera on a tube running upwards my heart. He made 3 small incisions on the side of my right breast. He did all the surgery through those holes through my ribs. Don’t know how long it took, just remember waking up in my room in the worst pain I have ever been in!! And every time I woke up I begged for more meds for pain. Nurse always said no. Guess it was too early or something. Found out several days later that the surgeon had accidentally nipped the heart sac when he was coming out of my heart. I was bleeding internally, they discovered it the next morning and opened the wound back up to repair the cut. They had to give me 4 units of blood. So I went through another night of awful terrible pain. The next day I went into AFib. My 5 days turned into 16 days in cardiac ICU!

In some cases, the patient or the surgeon do not have a choice between valve repair or replacement . My surgeon attempted to repair my mitral valve but after testing it,was still leaking so I had to have it replaced.

The other valve is On-X and there is a study in phase ll with that to see if Eliquis can replace warfarin, but the study is using On-X which may or may not apply to a different make.

I had my mitral repaired after refusing a valve replacement. I am a vegetarian and could not countenance the killing of a pig to use its valve to fix my heart. That was almost ten years ago and I have no regrets. A cadaver valve would have been acceptable or a mechanical valve could have worked too. The recovery was long and difficult but I am almost back to the way I was before surgery!

I just got told I have mitral valve disease two days ago, my gp says i might not need open heart surgery but i would still need to see a cardiologist in the near future. I breathe difficult these days and cant walk far. My knees hurt so bad, the dizziness and also muscle weakness, as well as heartbeat goes wild when I attempt to do anything. My heartbeat is so loud when I lay down

Dr. Oz and another doctor have developed a procedure to repair mitral valve prolapse that is less invasive.

Yes I just found out today from my doctor today because I passed out and my heart felt like it was coming out of my chest going to back up to front and all of second I went through a seizure for 10 seconds or more I didn't know what hit me they had the thing that they didn't know if they would use pad on me ,another thing question is they have to open my chest I have to go under surgery they open my chest 😢

I have bileaflet mvp and inverted t waves on ecg. I’ve also had nsvt and pvc/pac on holter. Would surgery decrease a risk for sudden cardiac death? Thank you

I am post mitral valve repair, annuluplasty neochodae implatation.. its my 6th week.. i want to know what happens to the ring and suture inside the heart.. thank u so much

my big question which I can't find an answer to what happens if the Mitral clip becomes totally detached later down the road. Is that basically instant death to have it floating around in your heart? Thanks

Like many things in life timing seems to be important here. I'm 58 and in otherwise good health. It seems to me that the choice I will have to make will be between repair and replacement, given the long-term time horizon.

What to do when there is huge menstrual bleeding after replacement of mitral valve with mechanical valve?

For mitral valve replacement, lungs should be in good suitable condition or not .....

I had my mitral valve with regurgitation fixed with the clip/ring and I still have a lot of PVCs it’s terribly uncomfortable and I am still short of breath all the time…

I had a aerotic valve replacement

My mother have mitral stenosis severe ..EF:30 Any good suggestion ?

I have suspected mitrial regurgitation. That is I don't always get shortness of breath when walking. Maybe one morning or evening then no shortness of breath on walking next excercise. It feels like I have something in my lung ie I cough a lot which helps. The shortness of breath stops when I stop walking. It's so annoying. I've alerted my Doctor and he sent me for a CT Scan. And a Ultra Sound. But the NHS is so slow. Any help would be grateful. X

What do you do, when you've had open chest surgery to replace a valve with a "pig valve?" And no you need to stop a leaking valve?

Got diagnosed yesterday to my surprise. I am an avid hiker, biker, vegan. Must be genetic.

I was just told I have Mitral Stenosis. Looking for more info

At about the 10:45 mark they talk about anti-calcification coatings. Just wondering what your thoughts are on using vitamin K2 to prevent calcification?

I have mitral valve regurgitation im 36 yr old I just found out n my symptoms are somewhat painful

I had open heart due to HOCM at 54. I recently found out that the Mitral valve has severe calcification with moderate regurgitation. To be honest, Im not willing to undergo another open heart surgery as it took me 1 year to recover, I also do not want to be on blood thinners. Do you think there is a good possibility repair/replace the MV via transcatheder?

I have a leaky valve and I’m terrified, I’m a single father of a 7 year old girl and I’m terrified of dropping dead in front of her, and I can’t leave her she needs me, I’m out of breath constantly and getting palpitations all the time, I live in the UK and the NHS has massive problems right now, I’m on a waiting list, I wish I lived in America and had health insurance, I can’t think to the future as I don’t know what’s gonna come, and I’m terrified for my daughter, I wish I was rich and could get this operation done, I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I was once the British champion freestyle wrestler, I’m still relatively fit, ( until I started getting shortness of breath) I’m absolutely shocked that this has happened to me, I consider my self strong and brave, but ever since the symptoms have got far worse I look at my daughter while she’s asleep and feel like I’m gonna cry, I realise I’m not the brave strong guy I always thought

How much the cost?

Is it possible ? To have mvr surgery to a person who already had mvr

hope and pray that my operation in mitral valve will be succesful.please pray for me

My neighbor lost her 26 year old daughter several years ago. During autopsy they found her mitral valve was in terrible condition. They never even knew she had something wrong.

Thank you for sharing this video. I have recently been diagnosed with a leaking left valve (I assume my consultant meant mitral valve). I wished I would have asked more questions having stumbled across your videos. I have now been referred for another echocardiogram to check how severe the leak is, and I am waiting on a MRI Scan of my heart. I have a couple of questions and would be very grateful for any information, or advice. 1) How serious is it? I have been feeling poorly for a very long time. Pain in chest (felt like my collarbone and sternum). I have had heart palpitations and my heart has raced a few times. I have been feeling out of breath. Cold hands and feet, and what feels like pain in my blood vessels. I was previously very fit so concerned by some of the symptoms. 2) What are the next steps following a definitive diagnosis? My Consultant advised me that a scan will be able to see if my leak is mild, moderate or severe. 3)Is there anything I can do before I go for my scan on the 5th January 2022?Any foods to avoid for example. Should I continue moderate exercise. By exercise I mean walking as I am unable to run, cycle or swim which I used to do a very lot before my symptoms kicked off around 18 months ago. Thank you in advance for anyone reading this and best wishes to you and your family for the holidays!

Sir does mechanical valve change the life span of man.. Sir my father is suffering from MVR after consulting doctor he suggested us to do replace mitral with mechanical Sir is it good or any other suggestions from you

Looking for a heart surgeon in Massachusetts to preform a Mitral valve repair. Any Leeds would be greatly appreciated

How much it cost to make a mitral valve repair?

I have mitral valve prolapse. The surgeon wants to do open heart surgery. I DON'T want that. I want the MITRACLIP. He said I'm not a candidate for that. WHAT CAN I DO?

It is open heart surgery or bypass surgery?

More cow valve!

How long is recovery

hi there My cardiologist said that taking an aspirin a day, for life, after my mitral valve repair is something I should be doing. Told me this last week as a NEW development. LOL I had my surgery 6 years ago and I take NO medication. Have you heard of this? I feel fine by the way and I'm not taking it and never have.

i just found out i had this problem

I also took no blood how amazing I'm living

Hi my son 18years old ...he affected by rumatic fever...after taht double valuve replacement ...im worried about my kid please anyone suggest... My desire....he will live happily 100% im worried i didn't sleeep

Moooooooo i have a cow valve

My Mom is 78 and having this surgery next month (10/21) She's known about this since the 1970s. My question is, why now? And is it safe? My best friends Dad is still in the hospital 4 months later from bypass surgery and almost lost him and I'm freaking out about my mother. She's normal weight, never smoked or drank at all and is sensitive to medication. Please calm my nerves. Hugs🫂