Week 5

     The operation I watched today was on a patient that was born with a heart disease called Tetralogy of Fallot. This disease consists of several different heart defects, so he had to have open heart surgery at 3 months old where they put a valve in his heart to even out some of the connections. There is some leakage in the valve that has caused the right side of his heart to grow too big, too fast, which could cause more complications in the future. I was not able to watch the whole operation, but they were planning to balloon the valve to make sure that it doesn't cause any pressure on the coronary arteries. If it doesn't, then they will put a new valve in. They showed me the valve that they were going to use, which is attached to a stint.

Open Valve

 Closed Valve