7/28/16

Today was my first day back in the OR, and I picked a good morning to come. All the while, I had company in some interns from UT, and got to chat with Dr. Nguyen for a bit before he scrubbed in. It's interesting to see how calm and collected these surgeons can be before cutting someone open, but I suppose a lot of the pre-op excitement dies down when you're performing multiple operations each day. One great thing about today was that one of the performing doctors decided to use a headcam, which is perfect for giving us lowly students some insight into the surgery; a fiberoptic cable links whatever they're seeing to suspended TV screens around the room, displaying footage in real time. Otherwise, the only good view in the house is from the anesthesiologist's corner of the room, which can get a bit crowded. Today's case was a double bypass, and was pretty standard fare- sternotomy, saphenous vein harvest from the left leg, interior mammary harvest from the left breast, etc. At this point, unless I see a new procedure or surgical method, I can sit back and enjoy the surgeons' work instead of tapping away at my phone taking notes. But, I did find out about one thing: why the saphenous vein harvests are done endoscopically (within the leg), instead of making an incision along the length of the leg and opening it up completely. When I wrote about the first surgery in which I saw a vein harvest, I didnt know what it was (formally) called, and looked it up to find out. Most of the picture results displayed a long incision spanning the length of the leg, which seemed ridiculously excessive. Turns out that the latter method is is much more traumatic, and takes much longer to recover from. Here's a picture of endoscopic vs. standard vein harvest techniques below, to give an idea of what I'm talking about:

  I also watched one of the doctors prep the saphenous vein for the graft, which is something I've never really paid attention to. The vein gets flushed of blood, the leads going to the venules (smaller vessels along the vein) are sutured shut, and the vein segment is dyed purple to distinguish it as foreign tissue when the time comes to graft it onto the myocardium. 

Update 7/26/16: I'm back (plus Heartwell info)!

 Wow, it's already been three weeks since I gave my "I'm leaving" announcement. I'm really getting tired of the word hiatus, or any of its synonyms,  so I'm going to go after things a bit more aggressively in the next two weeks before I have to use it again- I was thinking two blog posts a week, which is what I should've been doing since the beginning of the summer, but hey- Junior year was hard (can I still get away with that excuse?). Joking aside, with the exception of the past ~21 days, I'm really happy that I've been able to keep up the momentum of The Heartwell Project. "Understanding Aortic Stenosis" almost has 20,000 views on Youtube, something I definitely didn't expect to ever happen. People have learned from something I've created, and I really can't say enough about how awesome that feels. The TV appearance only stoked the forge there, and made our goal seem even more tangible; I'd like to keep that going. I'm currently laying out some plans to continue the project, which basically hinges on one thing: how much money we'll be able to put into it. So, I'll reach out, see what's available, try to organize some fundraising events, and see where things go. Maybe even set out a timeline for different videos and topics- which I'll consult Dr. Nguyen for- and get an idea of which diseases are most worth attending to. This is more than a high school student's "hey, look at me!" project for colleges, it's an extremely potent educational tool. And I want to see it through. More to come soon, in regards to The Heartwell Project and my experiences in the OR.

7/1/16

 Back again with a double-header blog post: an HVI visit and a (rather unexpected) talking segment on TV. I made it on Good Day Houston in the end, and got to talk a bit about my involvement with the Heartwell Project. Besides those two things, I wanted to inform everyone that this blog might be dormant for the next two weeks- I'm on vacation and visiting with family in South Carolina. I might do an update for something, but it probably won't be as meaty as what I've been putting out in the past few months. I expect to return to a regular blog schedule around the week of the 24th- I'll try to make it something special! But, without further ado...

Valve conference was fairly standard today, except for a few critical AS cases- those patients had multiple stenosed valves, showing themselves to be presumptive wildcards for the OR teams. The comorbidities (additional factors that increase the risk of surgery failure or death) were easy to pick out for these patients, and as a result, almost all of the recommended procedure options were minimally invasive. Many were TAVRs, simply because that procedure would solve the first of many problems that needed to be addressed for these people. Did I ever mention that the aorta is the largest blood vessel in the human body? Well, it's pretty important that this super-artery (and its accompanying valve) stay functioning correctly. Healthy blood outflow is always nice to have. 

Two commercial MitraClip candidates were discussed near the tail end of the conference- one with mild aortic sclerosis, mild tricuspid regurgitation, and moderate/high mitral regurgitation; the other another with severe mitral regurgitation, mild tricuspid regurgitation, aortic regurgitation, prolapsed anterior and posterior leaflets and a few other issues. As these patients were fairly high-risk, they were definite candidates for the MitraClip procedure, which stands as the only percutaneous (non-surgical) way to repair the mitral valve. It's pretty neat. A part of the discussion hinged around the decision of how to approach the second Mitraclip patient- the choice between transeptal and transapical entry points. Judging from the CR scan, both approaches were viable, but there were other things that weighed on the doctors' decisions. If the transeptal approach was chosen, it would be the first procedure of its kind, utilizing a new kind of catheter delivery system. It has only been tested on pigs so far, and because of that, some doctors were cautious about using it and wanted one or two successful cases to be available for reference. The patient's roomy left atrium would make the transapical catheter's entry easier, but Dr Nguyen voted transseptal- saying, 'we need to start [using the transeptal approach] sometime.' Transeptal was chosen in the end.

                    
 So, remember when I said I wouldn't be going on TV, and was relegated to an audience position with Matt? Well, that was true. But we got to do a lot more than we expected with said audience positions. When I arrived, Dr. Nguyen was still a few minutes from going on, and we had time to get comfortable; but, just as I was settling in and making small talk, a woman approached us- clip-on microphones in hand- and asked us to put them on. We did, and sat to watch Deborah Duncan's exchange with Dr. Nguyen on the stage in front of us. Soon enough, the topic of conversation turned to patient education, providing Matt and I with quite a foothold in the discussion. We both got to speak about what we had done for the project and how it had impacted us, and it became a really valuable experience. We were no longer just spectators, but a real part of the show. They also recruited me to do an Australian accent as part of another segment, which I'm glad none of my friends saw. Being on TV is a blast. 

I hope everyone had a happy 4th of July! 

6/20/16

Last week, some scheduling conflicts arose and Dr. Nguyen was out of town for a few days. making me unable to go to MH. I also had to reschedule a presentation of the Understanding Aortic Stenosis video at The Gardens of Bellaire, a senior community here in Houston. That's pushed it awfully close to another presentation I'm doing at the Elmcroft senior community, but I'll be able to do both. I'm interested in seeing how much the seniors will contribute to the discussion; many of them just want to get to bingo. I'll see how the presentations go and report the details here. Anyways, here's the case from June 20th.

Today was a single CABG (coronary artery bypass graft), a procedure that I haven't exactly seen yet. It's really just half of a double CABG, if that makes sense, since only one new vessel is being grafted on. So, in this case, only the saphenous vein got taken, while the interior mammary artery (which gets used in a double CABG) is disregarded. I forgot to mention (last time I talked about CABG) that the saphenous vein grafts that I've seen have all been harvested endoscopically, meaning that a probe was inserted into the leg to extract them.  I recently learned that there is an "open" method that requires the leg to be cut open length-wise, giving a clear view at the tissue and veins. Today's endoscopic vein harvest could've gone better, as some problems arose with getting appropriate vein segment lengths- I'm not sure if this was a technical issue, but I'd really like to see if the open method is any easier. This seemingly simple misstep made the surgery much longer than expected, delaying bypass and all of the "interesting" parts of the surgery. Nonetheless, the graft placement went rather well, and was definitely the highlight of the case. Grafting the saphenous vein onto the coronary arteries is a lot more complicated than dealing wth the interior mammary artery. With the saphenous, both ends are being attached to the heart, rather than just one with the interior mammary. Interesting instruments are brought in to support the graft placement- my favorite is this gray-colored device with two prongs that encircles the graft area. It has two sets of gears that seem to be used to tighten or loosen the grip on the myocardium, and is really cool to see in action. I still don't know what it is called, though, and "gray rotator tool for CABG" yielded no results on google images. I'll keep looking. 

I’ll have plenty of interesting stuff to report about early next week, including the Elmcroft visit and (possibly) another case. I recently learned that the producers of Great Day Houston won't be able to fit Matt and I onto their TV spot on the 27th, but Dr. Nguyen will still be on that morning to talk about our project. It won't be as cool without us, but hey, things happen. I definitely recommend that you all tune in and see what he says about it!

6/8/16

After a great weekend at Free Press Summerfest, a music festival here in Houston, I return with the memorable events of last week- pertaining to the HVI and Heartwell, of course. Last Wednesday, I entered some previously uncharted territory by staying for an entire case. It was a double coronary artery bypass (CABG) via sternotomy, and a great surgery to watch. I've mentioned in earlier blog posts that the more invasive the procedure, the easier it is to see what's going on; here, I could see everything, especially when the anesthesiologist wasn't tending to the patient's anticoagulant needs. From that angle, I could peer down at the chest cavity, able to see the performing doctors' precise techniques as they worked to graft the new arteries to the patient's heart. Reflections aside, I'll explain the procedure in brief (brief, only because I have some other things to discuss in this post). Coronary artery bypasses allow the coronary arteries to receive proper blood flow if their normal vessels are blocked by plaque, which is usually a result of high cholesterol. Rather than doing something like an angioplasty to repair existing vessels, a CABG uses grafts from other vessels in the body. For this double bypass, a saphenous vein segment was taken from the patient's left leg, and one end of the left interior mammary artery. One might ask, "why one end?" That is because the other is already connected to the subclavian artery, which receives a healthy blood flow from the aorta. Detaching it completely would be super unnecessary, as another hole would have to be created for the other end of the mammary artery. So, the saphenous vein graft connects from the aorta to some part of the right coronary artery, and the interior mammary artery connects from the subclavian artery to some part of the left coronary artery. It was very difficult to tell which of the tiny coronary vessels the new artery and vein were being sutured onto, in this specific case, so that's about as precise as I can be. I will link a picture at the bottom, though those vessel connections might not have been the same as the ones in this case. It all depends on what coronary segments are blocked.

What I really wanted to discuss in this post was my first presentation of the Understanding Aortic Stenosis video. I went to the Amelia Parc senior community, where my grandmother lives, to present the video and do a short Q&A about it. The elderly people there were really receptive of the video, and some had a lot to say about it- ranging from questions to personal accounts of dealing with heart disease. It was good to get the video out to our target audience, as they're the ones who we want to be getting across to. They're the ones meeting with doctors about disease treatment and trying to decipher things. The secret to a good senior community presentation, I've learned, is to stay far away from bingo time; as soon as that started, a good part of the group I had gathered rushed out. I'd never seen people that old move so quickly.

By the way, I might do more local senior community visits- in fact, I already have two set up for this month. If you guys have any suggestions for places to visit and present this information, feel free to contact me or comment on the post. Thanks!

Double CABG (general overview):

5/29/16

Last week, we posted a complete video to our YouTube channel called Understanding Aortic Stenosis. This was a big moment for our team, and we wanted to spread it around as quickly as possible- as of today, the video has accumulated over 700 views. I'd say we accomplished that goal. The video's success marked the first major stride towards developing the Heartwell Project, our effort towards educating everyday people of all backgrounds about heart disease. As I've said in previous posts, this summer is not meant to be a dormant period for it, so we'll continue to make progress. We also have a TV appearance with Deborah Duncan coming up at the end of June, which will work wonders in regards to our publicity. I see a lot of good things in The Heartwell Project, an incredible amount of potential that we're only starting to tap into. In addition to all of this, I have arranged to present the video (and do a Q&A) in an elderly community in Dallas next weekend. I'm so excited to host this whole process on my internship blog- it really tells a story of my thoughts and experiences throughout The Heartwell Project's development. Despite the huge importance I've been putting on the project, I haven't forgotten my "roots" at the HVI. I'll be able to join Dr. Nguyen for more surgeries, and school can't get in the way. Summer 2016 is going to be eventful, try to keep up!

Here's a link to our channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC600D_nPsIPZvv8zBbyjSqw

5/13/16

This morning's events were almost identical to last week's, with the exception being a rather interesting lecture that I attended before valve conference. The lecture was about robot-assisted tumor removals in the mediastinum (the upper chest cavity, containing the heart and lungs and surrounded by the ribs), something I'd never learned about. What really interested me about this lecture was the footage the doctors had of the surgery. The robotic arms sent into the mediastinum were accompanied by a high-quality video camera, which gave everyone watching the lecture a really great look at the cavity and the movement of the robotic arms. Robot-assisted surgery is being heralded as the next big step for minimally invasive surgery, and many of the doctors at the lecture were genuinely impressed by the robot's range of movement. The two robotic arms are even equipped with cauteries, special tools that use an electric current to burn through tissue. After the lecture, the room broke out into (well-mediated) discussion, with the doctors speaking their minds about the footage- some argued that the dexterity of a human hand would be hard to match using a machine, while others preferred the robot assistance for its cleanliness and quicker patient recovery time. The latter argument became much stronger after the lecturer told everyone that the patient from the footage went home just one day after the surgery. A thoracotomy tumor removal would take weeks to heal, and leave the patient with a noticeable scar along his or her chest; a robot-assisted removal, however, just leaves three small puncture holes. The world of thoracic surgery is truly changing rapidly.

Here's a video example of a robot-assisted posterior mediastinal tumor removal. This might be graphic for some:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arUrgtTv1TY

P.S, I've had a bit of a cold recently, which is why this post is going up so late- but hey, better late than never.