Gordon Fox • July 4, 2022
Training and Experience Count: Myectomy is Safest at High-Volume Centers
Myectomies at hospitals averaging more than 10 procedures per year led to fewer deaths and complications than at other hospitals.

Large study of US myectomies

Myectomy is safest at high-volume centers. A study accepted in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery provides new evidence of this.

Kimberly A. Holst and her collaborators (2022) examined nearly 6,000 US myectomies reported from 2012 to 2019. Their data came from a database compiled by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.

Mortality and post-operative risks lowest in high-volume centers

The researchers found that the chance of death was lowest in hospitals that performed more of the surgeries. But they also found that the risk of serious complications was much lower in these hospitals. The complications they studied included perforation of the interventricular septum and complete heart block.

Furthermore, those high-volume hospitals replaced mitral valves less often as part of the procedure.

Myectomy is safest in high-volume centers

These results strengthen the conclusions suggested by Kim et al. (2016) , that septal myectomy is safest at high-volume centers.

Literature cited

Holst, K. A., H. V. Schaff, N. G. Smedira, E. B. Habermann, C. N. Day, V. Badhwar, H. Takayama, P. M. McCarthy, and J. A. Dearani. 2022. Impact of Hospital Volume on Outcomes of Septal Myectomy for Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. The Annals of Thoracic Surgery , in press.

Kim, L. K., R. V. Swaminathan, P. Looser, R. M. Minutello, S. C. Wong, G. Bergman, S. S. Naidu, C. L. F. Gade, K. Charitakis, H. S. Singh, and D. N. Feldman. 2016. Hospital volume outcomes after septal myectomy and alcohol septal ablation for treatment of obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: US nationwide inpatient database, 2003-2011. J AMA Cardiology 1:324–332.

HCMA Blog

Lisa's Letter - July Newsletter

By Lisa Salberg • July 3, 2025
Summer, greetings to all our big-hearted friends As July approaches, our focus is already on the fall and preparing for some major events, including our annual meeting coming up in October. July will also find us on the west coast in Seattle conducting a regional patient education meeting as part of our big-hearted warrior tour. We have been following the generic drug quality issue in the United States very closely and encourage you to watch the series starting with our Hill briefing in April and following with the additional webinars with our partners at Medshadow and the People's Pharmacy, and of course the ProPublica series of articles. See them all here . We are happy to have a new team member on board - we welcome Pam as our coordinator of both our All Hearts Collaborative and Hearts and Minds project. Over the next few months, you're going to be learning more about these two amazing initiatives and how we are working to provide better services for big hearts regardless of where you live, so we are meeting all of our big-hearted friends where they are. Please stay tuned for updates from these projects coming soon. We are also creating new volunteer opportunities and engagements that we hope will make it easier for you to participate in spreading the message of the importance of diagnosis, the importance of community readiness related to CPR and AED use and, of course, helping patients get to their ultimate diagnosis and getting them on the proper treatment pathways. This July I would like to recognize all of the special birthdays in my family, including HCMA Center of Excellence coordinator, Stacey Titus-brown and my daughter Rebecca Salberg. It's a milestone birthday for Becca - it’s hard to believe I have a 30-year-old child. Wishing you all a happy and healthy summer. Go build some memories!
An official seal in black & red with white letters that say HCMS Recognized Centers of Excellence

July's Topic is COE Care at the HCMA

By Sabrina Cuddy • July 3, 2025
Getting HCM care at a HCMA Recognized Center of Excellence has a positive impact on patient's outcomes. Find out why in the post by Health Educator Sabrina Cuddy

Pro Publica Releases Results of FDA Investigation

By Erica Friedman • June 26, 2025
Investigative journalists Debbie Cenziper, Megan Rose, Brandon Roberts and Irena Hwang from Pro Publica and NPR have concluded a 14-month long investigation into the quality of generic drugs coming into the United States from overseas. Among the many voices that spoke up for American patients was HCMA Founder and CEO, Lisa Salberg who has felt the effects of low-quality drugs personally. Salberg believes that fixing this problem is something we can do, even in this time, when even health care is highly politicized. Read the key takeaways from ProPublica’s 14-month investigation into the FDA’s oversight of foreign drugmakers in Threat in Your Medicine Cabinet: The FDA’s Gamble on America’s Drugs .
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