hagan714

GROVES HAD HEART SURGERY
Posted by Mike Florio on April 10, 2008, 11:10 p.m.

Auburn defensive end Quentin Groves, a possible first-round pick in this month’s draft, underwent surgery last month to treat an abnormality in his heart’s electrical system, according to Adam Schefter of NFL Network.

Groves, per Schefter, is trying to head off a draft-day plunge by writing letters to NFL teams explaining the situation.

Groves has visited the Steelers and the Bengals, and will visit the Giants, Jets, Patriots, and 49ers.

Talk about red flags. It would be some thing if he feel to us in the second round. I need some input from our medical staff on this one. What kind of risk are we talking about here?

"We may have lost the game, but you'll be hurting tomorrow." Doug Atkins

papz

This definitely sucks for him. Hey if this makes him take a big tumble, I'd love to have him later in the draft. When he's healthy, I'm confident this is a 7 to 10 sack guy year in year out.

canucksaint

WARNING, the below post includes boring medical information…

From what I can gather, he was suffering from Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. What this does is it sends extra electrical frequencies from one part of the heart to the other. Therefore disrupting the regular electrical currents being sent out, and causing an irregular heart beat. (To put it into real life terms, imagine using a cordless phone with a really bad reception, you either don’t hear all of what being said, hear an echo, or get interference with another call, which confuses the information). Most of the time the risk is very low, and can be generally treated with medication, however I am assuming that in Groves’ case, it was a bit more severe, coupled with the fact that he is (or will be) a professional athelete, therefore higher risk. In some cases, especially when the paitent already has a high heartbeat (like I would imagine during game time), and the combination of the extra electrical frequencies, could cause ventricular fibrillation (pretty much equates into the heart immediately stopping). Again, I am assuming that he underwent a catheter ablation to correct this issue (sending a catheter up a vein to destroy the bridge which is sending the extra electrical frequencies). This is an invasive procedure, however has a pretty high success rate (95-98%). If this procedure was done sucessfully, with no other compications or any other comorbid conditions found, it is generally felt that the Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome is cured (as there is a less than 5% chance of it returning). The recovery period post surgery is pretty limited, depending on the original site of catherdization (if it originated in the groin, it may be a bit longer), but still you are only talking a matter of days.

So all in all, providing everything was sucessful, there should be no inherant future risk of this condition coming back, nor any future complication relating to this condition or procedure.

hagan714

If he falls to the second, grab him. As long as he checks out ok. I would love it.

Nice write up, thanks.