My Locations
About Me
My particular area of interest is what we call structural heart disease in adults. That usually involves valve problems, things like muscle bound hearts, tumors of the heart or sometimes arrhythmias. Another area of interest for me is minimally invasive surgery, which involves entering the heart area through the ribs on the side rather than through the breast bone, either manually with a camera or robotically. Surgeons are very hands-on people. We like doing things. But most of all we like helping people, talking with patients and their families, and helping them make up their minds about whether to have a procedure done, what kind of procedure to have, and helping them get through the procedure afterwards. That’s what we really enjoy doing. That’s really satisfying.
- Professor of Surgery, Surgery, Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery 1999
Call for an Appointment
Areas of Expertise
- Maze Procedure
- Minimally Invasive Valve Surgery
- Mitral Repair
- Robotic Valve Surgery
- Tricuspid Valve Surgery
Ratings and Reviews
The ratings and reviews are based on patient responses to the overall provider rating question from the survey. The question reads: “Using any number from 0 to 10, where 0 is the worst provider possible and 10 is the best provider possible, what number would you use to rate this provider?” Responses are converted to a 5-point rating system and applied consistently to all providers. Learn more about our survey process. Patients who see some types of providers receive a different version of the patient satisfaction survey. Those results are not available on DukeHealth.org.
Training and Education
In the News
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Clinical Focus and Research
I specialize in minimally invasive heart valve surgery, treatment of hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (muscle bound heart), surgical maze procedure for atrial fibrillation, and cardiac tumors. Duke has one of the world's largest experiences with mini-thoracotomy surgery on the aortic, mitral, or tricuspid valves to avoid a breastbone incision.
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Medtronic Cardiac Device RegistryIRB# PRO00104466
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CTSN PRIMARY Trial (Mitral Valve Regurgitation)IRB# PRO00110245 , NCT# NCT05051033
- Medtronic Cardiac Surgery Post Market Clinical Follow-Up Registry awarded by Medtronic, Inc. 2020 - 2032
- Abbott CRD 985 Annuplasty awarded by St. Jude Medical Inc. 2021 - 2024
- Barac, Yaron D., Rahul S. Loungani, Richard Sabulsky, Brittany Zwischenberger, Jeffrey Gaca, Keith Carr, and Donald D. Glower. “Robotic versus port-access mitral repair: A propensity score analysis.” J Card Surg 36, no. 4 (April 2021): 1219–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocs.15342.
- Kar, Saibal, Ted Feldman, Atif Qasim, Alfredo Trento, Samir Kapadia, Wesley Pedersen, D Scott Lim, et al. “Five-year outcomes of transcatheter reduction of significant mitral regurgitation in high-surgical-risk patients.” Heart 105, no. 21 (November 2019): 1622–28. https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2017-312605.
- Chhatriwalla, Adnan K., Sreekanth Vemulapalli, David R. Holmes, Dadi Dai, Zhuokai Li, Gorav Ailawadi, Donald Glower, et al. “Institutional Experience With Transcatheter Mitral Valve Repair and Clinical Outcomes: Insights From the TVT Registry.” JACC Cardiovasc Interv 12, no. 14 (July 22, 2019): 1342–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcin.2019.02.039.
- Kisslo, J., J. D. Rivera, D. Adams, B. G. Mackenson, A. Armour, A. Davis, J. Lander, and D. D. Glower. “Mitral Valve Disease.” In Echocardiography, Second Edition, 199–296, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71617-6_10.
- Glower, D. D. “Diagnostic Signs of Cardiac Tamponade.” In Sabiston and Spencer Surgery of the Chest: 2-Volume Set, 1675–90, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-24126-7.00095-8.
- Glower, D. D. “Tricuspid valve replacement.” In Cardiothoracic Surgery Review, 272–73, 2012.
- Zwischenberger, Brittany A., Carmelo Milano, John Haney, Jeffrey G. Gaca, Jacob Schroder, Keith Carr, and Donald D. Glower. “Durability of porcine and pericardial prostheses in tricuspid valve replacement.” In JTCVS Open, 21:78–87, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xjon.2024.06.017.
- Williams, Adam R., Mary E. Moya-Mendez, Sachin Mehta, Andrew Vekstein, J Kevin Harrison, Carmelo A. Milano, Ryan P. Plichta, et al. “Infarct exclusion repair of postmyocardial infarction ventricular septal rupture with a hybrid patch and septal occluder device compared with patch only.” In JTCVS Tech, 22:228–36, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xjtc.2023.07.022.
- Burkett, Melissa Merrill, Andrew Vekstein, Christopher Jensen, J Kevin Harrison, Andrew Wang, Donald D. Glower, Todd Kiefer, and G Chad Hughes. “ANTIBIOTIC PROPHYLAXIS ADHERENCE AFTER VALVE REPLACEMENT SURGERY.” In JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF CARDIOLOGY, 81:1969–1969, 2023.
Insurance Accepted
Duke Health contracts with most major health insurance carriers and transplant networks, including the ones listed below.
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Aetna
- Aetna Choice POS, Aetna Choice POS II
- Aetna Elect Choice HMO, Aetna Open Access Elect Choice
- Aetna Health Network Only, Aetna Health Network Option
- Aetna HMO
- Aetna Limited Benefit Insurance PPO
- Aetna Managed Choice POS
- Aetna Medicare Assure Plan (HMO D-SNP)
- Aetna Medicare Eagle Plan (PPO)
- Aetna Medicare Essential Plan (PPO)
- Aetna Medicare Value Plan (HMO)
- Aetna Open Access HMO, Open Access Aetna Select, Aetna Open Access Managed Choice
- Aetna Open Choice PPO
- Aetna PCP Coordinated POS Plan
- Aetna Quality Point of Service (QPOS)
- Aetna Select HMO
- Aetna Traditional Choice
- Aetna Voluntary Indemnity Group Plan
- Aetna Whole Health – Duke WakeMed WKCC
- Aetna/CVS Health
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Ambetter
- Ambetter of North Carolina
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Blue Cross Blue Shield of NC
- Blue Advantage
- Blue Medicare (HMO, PPO)*
- Blue Options (123, PPO, HSA)
- Blue Select
- NC State Employees Health Plan
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*Duke HomeCare and Hospice does not participate in the plan.
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Cigna
- Cigna Behavioral Health (*Limited eligibility)
- Cigna Choice Plus
- Cigna Connect Individual Family Plan
- Cigna Open Access
- Cigna Open Access Plus
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*Please call Cigna Behavioral Heath to see if the provider is participating in your plan.
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Duke Group Plans
- Duke Basic
- Duke Select
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Experience Health
- Experience Health Medicare Advantage (HMO) Plan
- Gateway Health Alliance
- Healthgram
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Humana
- Humana Choice (PPO)
- Humana Choice - Medicare Advantage (PPO)
- Humana ChoiceCare - Medicare Advantage (PPO)
- Humana Gold Choice - Medicare Advantage (PFFS)
- Humana Gold Plus - Medicare Advantage (HMO)
- Humana Medicare Advantage Group Plan - NC State Retirees
- MedCost
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Medicare
- First Medicare Direct
- Medicare Part A
- Medicare Part B
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NC Medicaid
- AmeriHealth Caritas North Carolina
- Carolina Complete Health
- Healthy Blue
- NC Medicaid Direct
- WellCare of North Carolina
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TRICARE
- TRICARE Prime
- TRICARE Prime Remote
- TRICARE Select
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United Healthcare
- AARP Medicare Advantage Plan 2 (HMO-POS)
- AARP Medicare Complete (HMO, PPO)*
- AARP Medicare Complete Essential (HMO)*
- All Savers Alternate Funding
- All Savers Fully Insured
- United Healthcare (HMO, PPO, POS)**
- United Healthcare Charter/Charter Balance/Charter Plus
- United Healthcare Choice/Choice Plus
- United Healthcare Core/Core Essential
- United Healthcare Navigate/Navigate Plus/Navigate Balanced
- United Healthcare Option PPO
- United Healthcare Passport Connect Choice/Choice Plus
- United Healthcare Passport Connect Options PPO
- United Healthcare Select/Select Plus
- United Healthcare Shared Services - Harvard Pilgrim/UHC Options PPO Network
- United Medical Resources (UMR)
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*Duke HomeCare and Hospice and mental health providers do not participate with the plan.
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**Duke Health does not participate in UHC plans on the Health Insurance Marketplace.
Before scheduling your appointment, we strongly recommend you contact your insurance company to verify that the Duke Health location or provider you plan to visit is included in your network. Your insurance company will also be able to inform you of any co-payments, co–insurances, or deductibles that will be your responsibility. If you proceed in scheduling an appointment and your health insurance benefits do not participate with Duke, your out of pocket liability may be higher. We will contact you regarding your coverage and patient liability. If you are uninsured, learn more about our financial assistance policy.