– For over 30 years, baby aspirin has been recommended for the prevention and the management of heart disease. For example, the American Heart Association has recommended low-dose aspirin for “those at risk of heart attack (if prescribed by their doctor) and for those who have survived a heart attack”.
Hi everybody it’s adam with arcbalfsurgery.com and today we’re answering your questions about the use of baby aspirin after heart valve replacement surgery i am thrilled to be joined by dr mark gerdisch who’s the chief of cardiac surgery at franciscan health in indianapolis indiana during his extraordinary career dr gerdis has performed over 6 000 cardiac
Procedures of which more than 4 000 involve some form of heart valve repair or heart valve replacement dr girdish thanks so much for being with us today thanks for having me adam always a pleasure yeah so this question comes in from duncan but i’ve gotten several questions about this specific topic of baby aspirin and duncan asks adam i had an aortic cal valve
Replacement and single bypass i was immediately put on a baby aspirin after surgery now i’m reading reports that bleeding risks from baby aspirin may be more significant than potential cardiac issues i bleed easily what is the latest recommendation specific to the use of baby aspirin for patients with tissue valves one of the things i love about the community at
Heart valve surgery is that they read they try to learn they assimilate new information and this is a really good question so there’s recent data that has come out and pretty robust data advising against baby aspirin for prevention so that means someone who does not have a diagnosis of vascular disease someone who has not had their valve replaced someone who
Has not had coronary bypass surgery those patients those people should not be taking a baby aspirin every day because when we look at thousands of patients like that the risk of bleeding outweighs whatever potential benefit there is for somebody who doesn’t have a diagnosis of one of those disorders on the other hand being on a low-dose aspirin after a valve
Replacement and or after a coronary bypass surgery is a different scenario and clearly has benefit so now you’d want to stop it if for example you developed gastrointestinal bleeding or you had a reason that you couldn’t be on it you’re allergic to it you have a low platelet count there’s something that endangers you specifically when you take aspirin but if you
Do not have one of those specific concerns clearly the benefits outweigh the risks so i hope that makes sense it’s a treatment and people think about well it’s just a baby aspirin it’s a small treat but it’s a treatment and it’s for a sp these specific disorders of vascular disease or having had your valve replaced with a tissue developer etc so it minimizes
Thrombosis and therefore it’s better for folks who have those conditions to be on that baby aspirin duncan i hope that helped you i know it helped me learn more about the use of baby aspirin for folks with cardiac conditions and dr gretis as always thanks for bringing this research and insight to our community on behalf of all the patients here thanks so much
For your time today oh thank you so much really glad to be here hi everybody it’s adam i hope you enjoyed that video and don’t forget you can always subscribe to our youtube channel watch the next two educational videos coming up on your screen or click the blue button to visit heartvalvesurgery.com
Transcribed from video
Baby Aspirin After Heart Surgery: What Should Patients Know? By HeartValveSurgery.com
