Day 4

Before rounds, I attended an M&M conference. At this conference, the entire Cardiac Surgical team at MGH discusses the cases in which patient death occurred. Doctors present the case, the course of action taken, the results, and in retrospect, what should have happened. It was sort of like Grey's Anatomy!

After rounds, we operated on a man who was having his third open heart surgery. The man previously had a pacemaker placed and a mitral valve replacement, and his mitral valve needed a second replacement. Since the patient had already had his chest cracked open so many times, which allowed for scar tissue to form, gaining exposure of the heart was difficult and it placed the patient at a high risk. Once exposure was finally gained, and the patient was connected to bypass, Dr M removed the old mitral valve and inserted a porcine replacement valve.

Porcine Replacement Valve