Course Takes Aim at Innovative Approaches to Rare Congenital Heart Disease

One of the noteworthy courses to be held on Saturday will focus exclusively on congenital heart disease and the skills necessary to treat some of its most unusual and difficult complications.

“We looked at previous years to see what are some good areas that are either complicated or controversial, that have not been covered in recent years, and that will bring something new to practitioners or to present various views of controversies,” explained session chair David P. Bichell, MD, of Vanderbilt University. “And it’s really centered on techniques.”

The first segment of the session consists of six 15-minute demonstrations on dysplastic pulmonary valve delamination and rehabilitation, monocuspid pulmonary valve, and freehand valved conduit construction, along with conduit-free repair of truncus arteriosus, hybrid pulmonary valve implantation, and a demonstration of simplified modified ultrafiltration by Greg Matte, Perfusion Clinical Coordinator at Boston Children’s Hospital.Dr. Bichell said that a range of sitautions will be discussed, such as “when you repair tetralogy of Fallot, you either obliterate or try to preserve the pulmonary valve. Right in between are these valves that you might or might not be able to preserve, and most surgeons don’t preserve. But there are various people with experience replacing one leaflet of a valve, a monocuspid valve, and a core matrix valve that conduits for replacing these valves, and [placing] hybrid pulmonary valve implants that are balloon deployed.”

Repairing and replacing atrioventricular valves will also be discussed at length. Special attention will be paid to Ebstein’s tricuspid valve – something that comes up very rarely for most surgeons, which will be presented by Joseph A. Dearani, MD, of the Mayo Clinic – along with a way to reconstruct a tricuspid valve called the Cone Technique. Dr. Bichell noted that too many surgeons are unaware of the Cone Technique.

“Replacing valves in infants is a really special problem because the infants grow, because prosthetic knobs are too small, [and] because anticoagulation is a headache,” explained Dr. Bichell. “There are various options for replacing a valve, creating a valve out of a cylinder of material, and putting in a valve that is balloon deployed. We depend on those colleagues who see these rare things to share their experiences.

“There will be some profusion talks on miniaturizing the circuit, bloodless surgery, and other topics that are of interest to everyone, but few have good answers for,” said Dr. Bichell. “But those who have put more thought and experience into it are going to share what they know.”

The sessions will run about 15 minutes each and will feature a video of the technique being demonstrated while the speaker discusses the procedure. The overarching goal of the session is to give attendees the confidence to go into their practice the next day and, should they see a patient with a presentation they’ve never seen before, have the confidence to perform the necessary procedure. “We want to focus on the rare but relevant end of what people would be interested in,” said Dr. Bichell.

One of the noteworthy courses to be held on Saturday will focus exclusively on congenital heart disease and the skills necessary to treat some of its most unusual and difficult complications.

“We looked at previous years to see what are some good areas that are either complicated or controversial, that have not been covered in recent years, and that will bring something new to practitioners or to present various views of controversies,” explained session chair David P. Bichell, MD, of Vanderbilt University. “And it’s really centered on techniques.”

The first segment of the session consists of six 15-minute demonstrations on dysplastic pulmonary valve delamination and rehabilitation, monocuspid pulmonary valve, and freehand valved conduit construction, along with conduit-free repair of truncus arteriosus, hybrid pulmonary valve implantation, and a demonstration of simplified modified ultrafiltration by Greg Matte, Perfusion Clinical Coordinator at Boston Children’s Hospital.Dr. Bichell said that a range of sitautions will be discussed, such as “when you repair tetralogy of Fallot, you either obliterate or try to preserve the pulmonary valve. Right in between are these valves that you might or might not be able to preserve, and most surgeons don’t preserve. But there are various people with experience replacing one leaflet of a valve, a monocuspid valve, and a core matrix valve that conduits for replacing these valves, and [placing] hybrid pulmonary valve implants that are balloon deployed.”

Repairing and replacing atrioventricular valves will also be discussed at length. Special attention will be paid to Ebstein’s tricuspid valve – something that comes up very rarely for most surgeons, which will be presented by Joseph A. Dearani, MD, of the Mayo Clinic – along with a way to reconstruct a tricuspid valve called the Cone Technique. Dr. Bichell noted that too many surgeons are unaware of the Cone Technique.

“Replacing valves in infants is a really special problem because the infants grow, because prosthetic knobs are too small, [and] because anticoagulation is a headache,” explained Dr. Bichell. “There are various options for replacing a valve, creating a valve out of a cylinder of material, and putting in a valve that is balloon deployed. We depend on those colleagues who see these rare things to share their experiences.

“There will be some profusion talks on miniaturizing the circuit, bloodless surgery, and other topics that are of interest to everyone, but few have good answers for,” said Dr. Bichell. “But those who have put more thought and experience into it are going to share what they know.”

The sessions will run about 15 minutes each and will feature a video of the technique being demonstrated while the speaker discusses the procedure. The overarching goal of the session is to give attendees the confidence to go into their practice the next day and, should they see a patient with a presentation they’ve never seen before, have the confidence to perform the necessary procedure. “We want to focus on the rare but relevant end of what people would be interested in,” said Dr. Bichell.

One of the noteworthy courses to be held on Saturday will focus exclusively on congenital heart disease and the skills necessary to treat some of its most unusual and difficult complications.

“We looked at previous years to see what are some good areas that are either complicated or controversial, that have not been covered in recent years, and that will bring something new to practitioners or to present various views of controversies,” explained session chair David P. Bichell, MD, of Vanderbilt University. “And it’s really centered on techniques.”

The first segment of the session consists of six 15-minute demonstrations on dysplastic pulmonary valve delamination and rehabilitation, monocuspid pulmonary valve, and freehand valved conduit construction, along with conduit-free repair of truncus arteriosus, hybrid pulmonary valve implantation, and a demonstration of simplified modified ultrafiltration by Greg Matte, Perfusion Clinical Coordinator at Boston Children’s Hospital.Dr. Bichell said that a range of sitautions will be discussed, such as “when you repair tetralogy of Fallot, you either obliterate or try to preserve the pulmonary valve. Right in between are these valves that you might or might not be able to preserve, and most surgeons don’t preserve. But there are various people with experience replacing one leaflet of a valve, a monocuspid valve, and a core matrix valve that conduits for replacing these valves, and [placing] hybrid pulmonary valve implants that are balloon deployed.”

Repairing and replacing atrioventricular valves will also be discussed at length. Special attention will be paid to Ebstein’s tricuspid valve – something that comes up very rarely for most surgeons, which will be presented by Joseph A. Dearani, MD, of the Mayo Clinic – along with a way to reconstruct a tricuspid valve called the Cone Technique. Dr. Bichell noted that too many surgeons are unaware of the Cone Technique.

“Replacing valves in infants is a really special problem because the infants grow, because prosthetic knobs are too small, [and] because anticoagulation is a headache,” explained Dr. Bichell. “There are various options for replacing a valve, creating a valve out of a cylinder of material, and putting in a valve that is balloon deployed. We depend on those colleagues who see these rare things to share their experiences.

“There will be some profusion talks on miniaturizing the circuit, bloodless surgery, and other topics that are of interest to everyone, but few have good answers for,” said Dr. Bichell. “But those who have put more thought and experience into it are going to share what they know.”

The sessions will run about 15 minutes each and will feature a video of the technique being demonstrated while the speaker discusses the procedure. The overarching goal of the session is to give attendees the confidence to go into their practice the next day and, should they see a patient with a presentation they’ve never seen before, have the confidence to perform the necessary procedure. “We want to focus on the rare but relevant end of what people would be interested in,” said Dr. Bichell.