A quick note to let everyone know Dennis C,
Our NYC friend who had his PVAI ablation with Dr Natale last June at St. Luke's and has been doing well on the AFIB front, is just out from his big surgery today at Mt Sinai to have an Aortic root Aneurysm repair by Dr Allan Stewart who is Director of Aortic Surgery there as well.
Dennis' wife, Deborah, just called me to give me the update and all went well and all his vitals are good, though he is still not awake yet and remains intubated until tonight, and will be in ICU for a bit, so I imagine he will be kept more or less sedated until they are ready to pull the breathing tube.
She confirmed too that while his chest was open and he was on the heart-lung bypass machine, Dr Stewart did indeed also amputate his Left Atrial Appendage. Doing this step was an addition to the procedure inspired by a very timely suggestion from Dr Natale after he learned that Dennis was having this Aneurysm repair today .. what a perfect time to kill two birds with one stone and eliminate any possible future stroke risk arising from the LAA, should AFIB ever return while also helping to eliminate any chance for AFIB to start triggering from the LAA (since it no longer exists) which is a common area for late re-acurrance of AFIB to start up from again even after an successful PVAI. Even if AFIB should start up again being triggered from a new source, it will not be from the LAA, so it would simplify too any possible touch up ablation procedure and preclude the need to go on blood thinners for an indefinite period for any reason related to AFIB and the LAA.
Once the message from Dr Natale was passed on to Dennis this past Friday, Dennis immediately contacted Dr Stewart who, in turn, immediately agreed to add in the LAA removal as well recognizing the real benefit for Dennis and that doing so made perfect sense during this rare opportunity while he had full access to the LAA via the open chest surgery needed to repair that aortic root aneurysm which is right near where the Aorta extends out of the top area of the heart.
So this is a good tip for any other Afibbers to discuss with their potential cardiac surgeons should they also ever require an open heart procedure and see if it makes good sense for them as well.
In any event, so far so good, Dennis is likely to be quite sore and not wanting to dance a jig at all in the next several days, but its great news that it all went well and its onward and upward from here!
Shannon
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/03/2013 08:02PM by Shannon.
Sounds like all the right things were done and you will be in fine working order in no time! Take it easy and know that you have many friends here who are rooting for you and praying for your quick recovery.