Treatment

Treatment of aortic valve regurgitation depends on the severity of your condition, whether you're having signs and symptoms, and if your condition is getting worse. The goals of aortic valve regurgitation treatment are to ease symptoms and prevent complications.

If your symptoms are mild or you aren't having symptoms, your doctor may monitor your condition with regular follow-up appointments and recommend healthy lifestyle changes. You may need regular echocardiograms to be sure your aortic valve regurgitation doesn't become severe.

Medications

Your doctor may recommend that you take medications to treat symptoms of aortic valve regurgitation or reduce your risk of complications. Medications may be prescribed to lower blood pressure.

Surgery or other procedures

You may eventually need surgery to repair or replace the diseased aortic valve, particularly if you have severe aortic regurgitation and symptoms. However, some people need surgery even if it's not severe, or when they aren't having symptoms.

The decision to repair or replace a damaged aortic valve depends on your symptoms, age and overall health, and whether you need heart surgery to correct another heart problem. If you're having another heart surgery, doctors may perform aortic valve surgery at the same time.

Surgery to repair or replace an aortic valve may be done as open-heart surgery, which involves a cut (incision) in the chest. Sometimes doctors can perform minimally invasive heart surgery to replace the aortic valve. This procedure, called transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), uses smaller incisions than those used in open-heart surgery.

Surgery for aortic valve regurgitation includes:

• Aortic valve repair. To repair an aortic valve, surgeons may separate valve flaps (cusps) that have fused, reshape or remove excess valve tissue so that the cusps can close tightly, or patch holes in a valve. Doctors may use a catheter procedure to insert a plug or device to repair a leaking replacement aortic valve.

• Aortic valve replacement. In aortic valve replacement, your surgeon removes the damaged valve and replaces it with a mechanical valve or a valve made from cow, pig or human heart tissue (biological tissue valve). Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is a minimally invasive heart procedure to replace a narrowed aortic valve with a biological tissue valve.

  Sometimes, the aortic valve is replaced with your own lung (pulmonary) valve. Your pulmonary valve is replaced with a biological lung tissue valve from a deceased person. This more complicated surgery is called the Ross procedure.

  Biological tissue valves break down over time and may eventually need to be replaced. People with mechanical valves will need to take blood-thinning medications for life to prevent blood clots. Your doctor will discuss with you the benefits and risks of each type of valve to choose the best one for you.