Week 3 - Nathaniel Wright

This past week has been busy and at the same time a great learning experience. I have continued to work on analyzing strain in the heart with the software from Tomtec. While this is an ongoing process this past week I had a chance to meet a post-doc from Yale. I will be working with him on bringing over a new software which was designed for segmental analysis of the heart which we hope to use for right side analysis. Currently the Tomtec software is very poor in looking at the right side of the heart. Due to this we wish to compare the ability of these two software to see if there is an improvement of the new program that has been developed.

Besides that, this week I have had the chance to visit the operating room. In the operating room I was able to watch three different operations, a stenotic mitral valve, a prolapsed mitral valve and a aortic heart valve replacement. The three different operation were each unique and allowed me to view very different aspects of the heart. They also showed what open heart surgery is like through the process of opening up the chest, the operation itself and then closing the patient up. I had a great view right above the head of the patient and so I could see many of the steps that were taken to solve the problems that existed within the heart. Replacing the aortic valve was a simple enough procedure (where nothing is simple) as the previous valve was already in place but due to the prior operation, everything took longer then expected. The way the patient had healed made it much more difficult to arrive at the heart then it would have been for a new patient. The operation while long, was successful in the end. The chance to watch all the doctors work in various capacities to finish the task was amazing as well as the different techniques that are used to perform bypass on the patient are different then imagined. There is no way to describe the complexity of everything that is at work to help open heart surgery to take place. The anesthesiologist have many different tasks that go on during the entire ordeal in addition to the nurses controlling the bypass machine. The environment was wonderful to experience first hand.

The other operations took place much more quickly and in a similar fashion to the previous procedure. However, the ability to see a valve and watch as stitches are placed into the leaflets and one leaflet is removed is very fascinating. It gives a much clearer picture of what a heart valve is more so can be found in books or online to describe it. I thoroughly enjoyed the time I had this week to learn so much about the OR and also continue to work on strain. It was a very productive week.