Heart valve treatment

Some types of heart valve disease can be treated with modern catheter-based procedures, which are much gentler on the patient.

Severe forms of mitral valve regurgitation, i.e. leaky mitral valves, are treated using open heart surgery.

TAVI stands for transcatheter aortic valve implantation, a minimally-invasive catheter-based procedure that is used for the implantation of prosthetic tissue valves.

Once the heart valves have been damaged, they often need to be repaired or replaced in order to ensure the patient's quality of life is preserved, and heart failure prevented.

The purpose of aortic valve reconstruction is to repair the patient's own aortic valve in such a way as to restore it to its full function.

The term mitral valve reconstruction refers to surgical repair that preserves the patient's native valve, as well as restoring its function.

Conventional heart valve replacement surgery is performed on the open heart, and uses cardiopulmonary bypass (a heart-lung machine). The patient's heart valve is replaced with either a mechanical or a tissue valve.

Minimally-invasive aortic valve replacement is performed using keyhole surgery. The prosthetic valve is implanted using either a catheter-based procedure, with access via the femoral artery, or via a direct access route through the tip of the heart.