Heart valves that don’t close properly or that become too narrow put you at risk for problems such as arrhythmia, heart failure, and pulmonary hypertension. Experts at the Allegheny Health Network (AHN) Cardiovascular Institute perform heart valve repair and replacement procedures to improve your heart’s pumping action. Learn about different heart valve surgeries, including the preparations, recovery time, and risks associated with each one.
The thought of having heart surgery can be overwhelming. But for patients with heart valve disease, surgery is a powerful option that can restore quality of life and extend life expectancy.
In general, there are two types of heart valve defects that may require surgical treatment:
This refers to a defect that causes a back flow of blood due to a leaky heart valve. Surgery may be recommended to either repair or replace it.
This valve defect causes the valve to narrow, making it difficult for the heart to pump blood forward. Your doctor may recommend valve replacement or repair through open-heart surgery or a minimally invasive procedure.
There are various surgical procedures your doctor can choose to treat heart valve disease, including leaky heart valve surgery. Other options include standard open-heart surgery or a minimally invasive catheter-based procedure.
In heart valve surgery, your surgeon repairs or replaces the valves to allow uninterrupted blood flow from the heart to the rest of the body. Many surgical approaches can be used to repair or replace heart valves, including open-heart surgery or minimally invasive heart surgery.
Standard open-heart surgery is performed with an incision through the breastbone to allow access into the chest. It’s often the preferred treatment because your surgeon can repair various existing heart problems during the same surgery. Full recovery from this surgery can take a couple of months.
Minimally invasive heart surgery involves making small incisions on the chest and using long instruments to reach the heart between the ribs. Surgeons can use the assistance of a robot to perform minimally invasive heart surgery. This procedure often has a quicker recovery period and the return to independence is usually within a few weeks.
Heart valve repair surgery is a treatment used to repair a faulty valve that can be easily fixed without replacing it altogether. There are two types of heart valve repair surgeries:
This procedure is used to repair or reshape the ring around a heart valve by implanting an artificial ring.
Also known as balloon valvotomy, this procedure is used to repair a heart valve with a narrow opening.
Our cardiovascular surgeons specialize in robotic-assisted and minimally invasive cardiac surgeries to treat heart valve disease. We offer:
Your physician places an expandable replacement valve into the heart via a catheter (long, thin tube) inserted through the femoral artery. AHN is a national leader in TAVR procedures.
This innovative device stops valve regurgitation (backward flow of blood to the heart) by closing leaky valve leaflets. During minimally invasive heart surgery, your physician implants the device via a catheter inserted through the femoral artery in the groin.
Your physician repairs a leaky mitral valve using a small camera and instruments inserted through small incisions between the ribs. Learn more about robotic heart surgery for
