These are both signs of heart valve problems. Treatments for heart valve disorders depend on the severity of the disorder and symptoms. Most doctors suggest beginning with conservative treatments. These include:. You may need surgery if your symptoms increase in severity. This may include a heart valve repair using one of the following:.
Valvuloplasty may also be used to treat stenosis. The inflation increases the size of the opening in the valve, and then the balloon is removed. Your outlook will depend on what heart valve disorder you have and how severe it is. Some heart valve disorders only require routine monitoring, while others require surgery. This will make it more likely that your doctor will discover any potentially serious conditions in the early stages.
Learn about the process of valve replacement surgery for heart disease, the types of replacement valves, the procedure, survival rate, and recovery. The left atrium is one of the four chambers of the heart.
The left…. MVP is a common condition that can range from mild to serious and can cause a heart murmur. Learn more about MVP symptoms, tests, and treatments. Pulmonary valve stenosis is a rare, potentially serious cardiac condition.
Learn how it affects the heart and how it's treated. The mitral valve, also known as the bicuspid valve, helps move blood from the left atrium to the left ventricle. Mitral valve disease can prevent blood from flowing properly out of your heart to the rest of the body. Read about its causes and treatment. Aortic valve stenosis most often develops in older adults, but it can also affect newborns.
The aortic valve is located between the aorta and the heart's left ventricle. Medications to control blood pressure, such as diuretics remove excess water from the body by increasing urine output or vasodilators relax the blood vessels, decreasing the force against which the heart must pump to ease the work of the heart. Surgery may be needed to repair or replace the malfunctioning valve s. Surgery may include:. Heart valve repair.
In some cases, surgery on the malfunctioning valve can help ease symptoms. Examples of heart valve repair surgery include remodeling abnormal valve tissue so that the valve works properly, or inserting prosthetic rings to help narrow a dilated valve. In many cases, heart valve repair is preferable, because a person's own tissues are used. Heart valve replacement. When heart valves are severely malformed or destroyed, they may need to be replaced with a new valve.
Replacement valves may be either tissue biologic valves, which include animal valves and donated human aortic valves, or mechanical valves, which can consist of metal, plastic, or another artificial material. This usually requires heart surgery. But, certain valve diseases such as aortic valve stenosis or mitral valve regurgitation may be managed using non- surgical methods.
Another treatment option that is less invasive than valve repair or replacement surgery is balloon valvuloplasty. This is a non-surgical procedure in which a special catheter hollow tube is threaded into a blood vessel in the groin and guided into the heart.
At the tip of the catheter is a deflated balloon that is inserted into the narrowed heart valve. Once in place, the balloon is inflated to stretch the valve open, and then removed. This procedure is sometimes used to treat pulmonary stenosis and, in some cases, aortic stenosis. Health Home Conditions and Diseases. The 4 heart valves include the following: Tricuspid valve. Located between the right atrium and the right ventricle. Pulmonary valve. Located between the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery.
Mitral valve. Located between the left atrium and the left ventricle. Aortic valve. Located between the left ventricle and the aorta. How do the heart valves function? What is heart valve disease? Heart valve disorders can arise from 2 main types of problems: Regurgitation or leakage of the valve. What are the symptoms of heart valve disease? These are the most common symptoms of heart valve disease: Chest pain Palpitations caused by irregular heartbeats Fatigue Dizziness Low or high blood pressure, depending on which valve disease is present Shortness of breath Abdominal pain due to an enlarged liver if there is tricuspid valve malfunction Leg swelling Symptoms of heart valve disease may look like other medical problems.
What causes heart valve damage? The causes of heart valve damage vary depending on the type of disease present, and may include the following: Changes in the heart valve structure due to aging Coronary artery disease and heart attack Heart valve infection Birth defect Syphilis a sexually-transmitted infection Myxomatous degeneration an inherited connective tissue disorder that weakens the heart valve tissue The mitral and aortic valves are most often affected by heart valve disease.
Some of the more common heart valve diseases include: Heart valve disease Symptoms and causes Bicuspid aortic valve With this birth defect, the aortic valve has only 2 leaflets instead of 3. Mitral valve prolapse also known as click-murmur syndrome, Barlow's syndrome, balloon mitral valve, or floppy valve syndrome With this defect, the mitral valve leaflets bulge and don't close properly during the contraction of the heart.
Mitral valve stenosis With this valve disease, the mitral valve opening is narrowed. Aortic valve stenosis This valve disease occurs mainly in the elderly. Pulmonary stenosis With this valve disease, the pulmonary valve does not open sufficiently. He or she also will do a physical exam and look at the results from tests and procedures.
Your doctor will listen to your heart with a stethoscope. He or she will want to find out whether you have a heart murmur that's likely caused by a heart valve problem. Your doctor also will listen to your lungs as you breathe to check for fluid buildup. He or she will check for swollen ankles and other signs that your body is retaining water. Echocardiography echo is the main test for diagnosing heart valve disease. But an EKG electrocardiogram or chest x ray commonly is used to reveal certain signs of the condition.
If these signs are present, echo usually is done to confirm the diagnosis. Your doctor also may recommend other tests and procedures if you're diagnosed with heart valve disease. These tests and procedures help your doctor assess how severe your condition is so he or she can plan your treatment. This simple test detects and records the heart's electrical activity. An EKG can detect an irregular heartbeat and signs of a previous heart attack. It also can show whether your heart chambers are enlarged.
This test can show whether certain sections of your heart are enlarged, whether you have fluid in your lungs, or whether calcium deposits are present in your heart.
A chest x ray helps your doctor learn which type of valve defect you have, how severe it is, and whether you have any other heart problems. Echo uses sound waves to create a moving picture of your heart as it beats.
A device called a transducer is placed on the surface of your chest. The transducer sends sound waves through your chest wall to your heart. Echoes from the sound waves are converted into pictures of your heart on a computer screen. During TEE, the transducer is attached to the end of a flexible tube. The tube is guided down your throat and into your esophagus the passage leading from your mouth to your stomach.
From there, your doctor can get detailed pictures of your heart. For this procedure, a long, thin, flexible tube called a catheter is put into a blood vessel in your arm, groin upper thigh , or neck and threaded to your heart. Your doctor uses x-ray images to guide the catheter. Through the catheter, your doctor does diagnostic tests and imaging that show whether backflow is occurring through a valve and how fully the valve opens. You'll be given medicine to help you relax, but you will be awake during the procedure.
Your doctor may recommend cardiac catheterization if your signs and symptoms of heart valve disease aren't in line with your echo results. The procedure also can help your doctor assess whether your symptoms are due to specific valve problems or coronary heart disease.
All of this information helps your doctor decide the best way to treat you. During stress testing, you exercise to make your heart work hard and beat fast while heart tests and imaging are done.
If you can't exercise, you may be given medicine to raise your heart rate. A stress test can show whether you have signs and symptoms of heart valve disease when your heart is working hard.
It can help your doctor assess the severity of your heart valve disease. Cardiac MRI uses a powerful magnet and radio waves to make detailed images of your heart. A cardiac MRI image can confirm information about valve defects or provide more detailed information. This information can help your doctor plan your treatment. An MRI also may be done before heart valve surgery to help your surgeon plan for the surgery.
However, lifestyle changes and medicines often can treat symptoms successfully and delay problems for many years. Eventually, though, you may need surgery to repair or replace a faulty heart valve. Repairing or replacing a valve can prevent lasting damage to your heart and sudden death. When possible, heart valve repair is preferred over heart valve replacement. Valve repair preserves the strength and function of the heart muscle. However, heart valve repair surgery is harder to do than valve replacement.
Also, not all valves can be repaired. Mitral valves often can be repaired. Aortic and pulmonary valves often have to be replaced. Sometimes cardiologists repair heart valves using cardiac catheterization. Although catheter procedures are less invasive than surgery, they may not work as well for some patients.
Work with your doctor to decide whether repair is appropriate. If so, your doctor can advise you on the best procedure.
Heart valves that cannot open fully stenosis can be repaired with surgery or with a less invasive catheter procedure called balloon valvuloplasty. This procedure also is called balloon valvotomy. During the procedure, a catheter thin tube with a balloon at its tip is threaded through a blood vessel to the faulty valve in your heart.
The balloon is inflated to help widen the opening of the valve. Your doctor then deflates the balloon and removes both it and the tube. Balloon valvuloplasty relieves many symptoms of heart valve disease, but may not cure it. The condition can worsen over time. You still may need medicines to treat symptoms or surgery to repair or replace the faulty valve. Balloon valvuloplasty has a shorter recovery time than surgery.
The procedure may work as well as surgery for some patients who have mitral valve stenosis. For these people, balloon valvuloplasty often is preferred over surgical repair or replacement. Doctors often use balloon valvuloplasty to repair valve stenosis in infants and children. This surgery involves removing the faulty valve and replacing it with a man-made or biological valve.
Biological valves are made from pig, cow, or human heart tissue and may have man-made parts as well. Biological valves usually have to be replaced after about 10 years, although newer ones may last 15 years or longer. Unlike biological valves, however, man-made valves require you to take blood-thinning medicines for the rest of your life. These medicines prevent blood clots from forming on the valve. Blood clots can cause a heart attack or stroke. Man-made valves also raise your risk of infective endocarditis.
You and your doctor will decide together whether you should have a man-made or biological replacement valve. Doctors also can treat faulty aortic valves with the Ross procedure. During this surgery, your doctor removes your faulty aortic valve and replaces it with your pulmonary valve. Your pulmonary valve is then replaced with a pulmonary valve from a deceased human donor.
This is more involved surgery than typical valve replacement, and it has a greater risk of complications. The Ross procedure may be especially useful for children because the surgically replaced valves continue to grow with the child.
But in some patients, one or both valves fail to work well within a few years of the surgery. Researchers continue to study the use of this procedure. Some forms of heart valve repair and replacement surgery are less invasive than traditional surgery. These procedures use smaller incisions cuts to reach the heart valves. Hospital stays for these newer types of surgery usually are 3 to 5 days, compared with a 5-day stay for traditional heart valve surgery. New surgeries tend to cause less pain and have a lower risk of infection.
Recovery time also tends to be shorter—2 to 4 weeks versus 6 to 8 weeks for traditional surgery. Interventional cardiologists perform procedures that involve threading clips or other devices to repair faulty heart valves using a catheter tube inserted through a large blood vessel.
The clips or devices are used to reshape the valves and stop the backflow of blood. People who receive these clips recover more easily than people who have surgery. However, the clips may not treat backflow as well as surgery. Doctors also may use a catheter to replace faulty aortic valves. This procedure is called transcatheter aortic valve replacement TAVR. For this procedure, the catheter usually is inserted into an artery in the groin upper thigh and threaded to the heart. A deflated balloon with a folded replacement valve around it is at the end of the catheter.
Once the replacement valve is placed properly, the balloon is used to expand the new valve so it fits securely within the old valve. The balloon is then deflated, and the balloon and catheter are removed. A replacement valve also can be inserted in an existing replacement valve that is failing. This is called a valve-in-valve procedure.
To help treat heart conditions related to heart valve disease, your doctor may advise you to make heart-healthy lifestyle changes, such as:. Heart valve disease is a lifelong condition. For other people, the condition slowly worsens until symptoms develop.
If not treated, advanced heart valve disease can cause heart failure or other life-threatening conditions. Eventually, you may need to have your faulty heart valve s repaired or replaced. If you have heart valve disease, see your doctor regularly for checkups and for echocardiography or other tests.
This will allow your doctor to check the progress of your heart valve disease. Call your doctor if your symptoms worsen or you have new symptoms.
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