Valve Disease Treatment
(Heart Valve Surgery)
ntroduction to Heart Valve Surgery
Diseased heart valves can be treated both surgically (traditional heart valve surgery) and non-surgically (balloon valvuloplasty).
What Happens During Traditional Heart Valve Surgery?
During traditional heart valve surgery, a surgeon will make an incision down the center of your sternum (breastbone) to get direct access to your heart. The surgeon then repairs or replaces your abnormal heart valve or valves.
What Happens During Minimally Invasive Heart Valve Surgery?
Minimally invasive heart valve surgery is a type of surgery performed through smaller incisions. This type of surgery reduces blood loss, trauma, and length of hospital stay.
Your surgeon will review your diagnostic tests prior to your surgery to determine if you are a candidate for minimally invasive valve surgery.
Often, the surgeon and cardiologist (heart doctor) will use transesophogeal echo (an ultrasound transducer probe that is passed down the throat) to help determine the functioning of the valve before and after surgery.
What Is Heart Valve Repair Surgery?
The mitral valve is the most commonly repaired heart valve, but the aortic, pulmonic, and tricuspid valves may also undergo some of these repair techniques.
If your valve can be repaired, your surgeon will perform any of the following types of valve repair procedures.
* Commissurotomy. Fused valve leaflets, or flaps, are separated to widen the valve opening.
* Decalcification. Calcium deposits are removed to allow the leaflets to be more flexible and close properly.
* Reshape leaflets. If one of the leaflets is floppy, a segment may be cut out and the leaflet sewn back together, allowing the valve to close more tightly. This procedure is called quadrangular resection.
* Chordal transfer. If a leaflet of the mitral valve has prolapse (floppy; lacking support), the chordae are transferred from one leaflet to the other. Then, the leaflet where the chordae was removed is repaired by quandrangular resection (see above).
* Annulus support. If the valve annulus (the ring of tissue supporting the valve) is too wide, it may be reshaped or tightened by sewing a ring structure around the annulus. The ring may be made of tissue or synthetic material.
* Patched leaflets. The surgeon may use tissue patches to repair any leaflets with tears or holes.
The advantages of heart valve repair surgery include:
* decreased need for life-long blood thinner (anticoagulant) medication
* preserved heart muscle strength
Each valve has a set of leaflets, or flaps. The mitral valve only has two while the others have three. Under normal circumstances, these flaps should tightly seal the opening after blood has flowed through them. Unfortunately, problems can prevent them from working properly. Hospital for Balloon Valvuloplasty in Germany
ReplyDeleteThe term Balloon Valvuloplasty refers to a surgery performed on patients diagnosed with symptoms of stenosis. A condition associated with narrowing of the valves of heart, stenosis is treated in the procedure of Balloon Valvuloplasty through the introduction of a deflated balloon, which is later inflated at the opening of the affected valve for its enlargement. During the course of surgery, doctors anaesthetize the groin area to insert a thin tube with a small deflated balloon in the blood vessel. This tube or catheter is guided to the opening of the stenotic valve through the coronary artery. Once there, the balloon is inflated repeatedly to allow the valve to dilate. http://www.health-tourism.com/balloon-valve-treatment/thailand/
ReplyDeleteGood post! List of hospitals in Turkey offering Balloon valve surgery
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