Heart valve repair is a cardiac surgery procedure, carried out to repair one or more faulty heart valves. In some valvular heart diseases repair where possible is preferable to valve replacement. A mechanical heart valve is a replacement valve that is not itself subject to repair.

General

Valvuloplasty is the widening of a stenotic valve using a balloon catheter. Types include:

Valvulotomy

Commissurotomy of heart valves is called a valvulotomy.

By valve

Mitral valve repair

Mitral valve repair is mainly used to treat stenosis (narrowing) or regurgitation (leakage) of the mitral valve. A mitral balloon valvuloplasty enlarges the valve opening to allow greater oxygenated blood flow into the left ventricle, and since severe mitral regurgitation can be a major complication, degrees of stenosis, regurgitation, and valve anatomical features are taken into consideration before the procedure.

Aortic valve repair

Aortic valve repair is a surgical procedure used to correct some aortic valve disorders as an alternative to aortic valve replacement. Aortic valve repair is performed less often and is more technically difficult than mitral valve repair. There are two surgical techniques of aortic-valve repair:

Tricuspid valve repair

Tricuspid valve repair is used to correct tricuspid regurgitation.

History

The first two percutaneous ultrasound-guided fetal balloon valvuloplasties, a type of in utero surgery for severe aortic valve obstruction, were reported in 1991.