Heart valve replacement surgery

Heart valve replacement surgery

Heart valve placement surgery

Heart valves regulate blood flow within the heart to enable the heart to work efficiently. There are many diseases that affect heart valves, the most famous are heart valve regurgitation and heart valve stenosis.  Professor Dr. Mohammed El-Ghannam, a consultant of Open Heart Surgery and Minimally Invasive Surgery, is one of the most prominent surgeons in Egypt who diagnoses heart valve diseases with high accuracy and performs heart valve placement surgery, whether using the traditional method or minimally invasive surgery.

Heart valve disease 

There are 4 types of heart valve disease as the following:
  • Valve stenosis: The valve tissue becomes thicker or stiffer, making the valve opening narrower. 
  • Valve regurgitation: The valve does not close tightly, causing blood to leak in the opposite direction.
  • Valve relaxation: The valve becomes flexible and stretched, and does not close effectively leading to regurgitation.
  • Congenital obstruction: the valve is absent, and instead, there is a layer of hard tissue that obstructs the flow of blood between the two chambers of the heart. 

Heart valve placement surgery with Dr. Mohammed El-Ghannam 

At present, there are two methods of surgery to replace damaged heart valves, they are:
  •  Open heart surgery
 Where dr. Mohammed El-Ghannam makes a 25 cm surgical incision in the middle of the chest and then cuts the breastbone to reach the patient’s heart to replace the valve. The traditional open heart approach is suitable for patients with severe symptoms, or who will undergo heart valve placement surgery in conjunction with other surgical procedures, for example, heart bypass surgery or aortic replacement.
  • Minimally invasive surgery 
The second method for heart valve replacement surgery is one of the limited invasive surgical intervention techniques by using the endoscopic and it includes the following: Dr. Mohammed El-Ghannam makes a small incision in the chest and then inserts the long endoscope with a video camera. The camera helps to magnify the image, so the doctor can see the problem in the heart using a 3D system, and then replace the damaged valve. 

What is the success rate of heart valve placement surgery ?

With Prof. Dr. Mohammed El-Ghannam, the success rate of heart valve replacement surgery has increased and has become between 95-98%, with the use of minimally invasive techniques in surgery.  However, the surgery still carries a degree of risk estimated at 2-5%, so you should discuss all matters with the doctor and know the success rate for your case and the percentage of potential risks. To conclude, the use of an endoscope in heart valve placement surgery makes the surgery safer and more accurate compared to traditional surgery. Moreover, it helps the patient feel less pain and recover faster. Therefore, the patient can return to his daily and work life normally and faster. The use of the endoscope also helps reduce the period of stay in intensive care units and reduce the number of days spent in the hospital.
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