Treatment

Heart valve disease treatment depends on your symptoms, the severity of the condition, and whether your condition is worsening.

A doctor trained in heart disease (cardiologist) will provide your care. Treatment might include monitoring your condition with regular follow-up visits. You might be asked to:

• Make healthy lifestyle changes
• Take medications to treat symptoms
• Take blood thinners to reduce the risk of blood clots if you have a certain irregular heart rhythm called atrial fibrillation

Surgery or other procedures

You might eventually need heart valve surgery to repair or replace the diseased heart valve even if you don't have symptoms. If you need surgery for another heart condition, your doctor might repair or replace the diseased valve at the same time.

Heart valve surgery is usually performed through a cut (incision) in the chest. Doctors sometimes do minimally invasive heart surgery, which involves smaller incisions than those made for open-heart surgery. In some medical centers, doctors perform robot-assisted heart surgery, a type of minimally invasive heart surgery in which surgeons use robotic instruments to conduct the procedure.

Surgery options include valve repair or replacement.

Heart valve repair

Your doctor might recommend heart valve repair to preserve your heart valve. To repair a heart valve, surgeons might:

• Patch holes in a valve
• Separate valve leaflets that have fused
• Replace the cords that support the valve
• Remove excess valve tissue so that the valve can close tightly

Surgeons often tighten or reinforce the ring around a valve (annulus) by implanting an artificial ring. In some cases, doctors use less invasive procedures to repair certain valves using long, thin tubes (catheters). These procedures can involve the use of clips, plugs or other devices.

Heart valve replacement

If the valve can't be repaired, surgeons might remove the damaged valve and replace it with a mechanical valve or a valve made from cow, pig or human heart tissue (biological or tissue valve).

If you had valve replacement with a mechanical valve, you'll need to take blood thinners for the rest of your life to prevent blood clots. Biological tissue valves break down over time and usually need to be replaced.

A minimally invasive procedure called transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) may be used to replace a damaged aortic valve. In this procedure, the doctor inserts a long, thin tube (catheter) into an artery in your leg or chest and guides it to the heart valve. A replacement valve is moved through this catheter to the correct position.