More Years of Moves By Jagger
June 12, 2019
Mick Jagger's dance moves are legendary. And now, the legendary Rolling Stones front man will get to keep dancing longer after undergoing surgery to replace a heart valve in April.
The 75-year-old singer recently shared a video of himself dancing after his procedure, giving the world a peek into how his recovery was going.
Rolling Stones fans and followers around the world cheered at the singer's dance to The Wombats' song "Techno Fan."
The procedure Jagger had is used to treat heart valve disease, a condition that can prevent blood from flowing in the correct direction through the heart.
These heart valves include the aortic valve, mitral valve, tricuspid valve and the pulmonary valve.
The mitral and tricuspid valves contain tiny flaps known as leaflets, and in the aortic and pulmonary valves, these flaps are known as cusps. These leaflets and cusps open and close on every heartbeat.
When these flaps do not fully open or close properly, it can disrupt the blood flow from the heart to the rest of the body. This can create a situation known as hypotension or low blood pressure.
"While having low blood pressure is a good thing, there is such a thing as too low," said Dr. Faisal Jahangiri, CNIM, D.ABNM, FASNM, of AXIS Neuromonitoring in Richardson, Texas.
When blood pressure is too low, it can cause symptoms like fatigue, shortness of breath at both rest and activity, dizziness, and fainting. Other symptoms include swelling of the extremities, confusion, shallow breathing and a weak pulse.
"When blood pressure is too low, patients are at risk of falling or fainting, which can lead to injury," Jahangiri said.
During heart valve surgery, malfunctioning heart valves are repaired or replaced. In some cases, replacing affected heart valves can be a minimally invasive procedure, but in other cases, valve replacement surgery is more invasive.
"Determining if the procedure is open or minimally invasive depends on different factors, such as the patient's age, health and the condition of their valves," Jahangiri said.
With open heart procedures for valve replacement, the risk for complications is higher. In many cases, this means extra precautions for patient safety. One of those precautions is often intraoperative neuromonitoring.
"Intraoperative neuromonitoring, or IONM, employs electrophysiological methods such as electroencephalography and electromyography to analyze and monitor the functional integrity of nerves and neural structures during surgery," Jahangiri said.
Monitoring these nerves and structures can help reduce risk to patients during surgery.
During IONM, the devices used to monitor these structures are watched by a trained technologist. This technologist watches for changes in activity that could cause complications during the procedure or lead to life-altering side effects after the surgery and reports these changes to the surgeon or anesthesiologist.
"When performing any surgery, using neuromonitoring is an extra layer of protection and care for patients," Jahangiri said.
IONM is not only employed for surgeries that affect the nerves, brain and spinal cord, but is also becoming a tool frequently used in heart procedures, including heart valve replacement, to reduce complications such as stroke or hyper-cerebral perfusion.
Strokes can cause life-changing brain injuries, which can result in neurologic dysfunction such as stroke and cognitive impairment. These conditions can affect specific regions of the brain or can affect the entire brain.
"Using intraoperative neurologic monitoring during cardiac procedures can help prevent or detect adverse neurologic events, which can significantly change outcomes for patients," Jahangiri said.
