Heart valve repair Heart valve repair Heart valve repair is a surgical technique used to fix defects in heart valves in valvular heart diseases, and provides an alternative to valve replacement. Without further specification, it refers to native heart valve repair, rather than repair of an artificial heart valve. Valvuloplasty is the widening of a stenotic valve using a balloon catheter. Types include: Commissurotomy of cardiac valves is called "valvulotomy". "Mitral valve repair" is mainly used to treat stenosis (narrowing) or regurgitation (leakage) of the mitral valve. Aortic valve repair is a surgical procedure used to correct some aortic valve disorders as an
Mitral valve stenosis asymptomatic patients. The treatment options for mitral stenosis include medical management, mitral valve replacement by surgery, and percutaneous mitral valvuloplasty by balloon catheter. The indication for invasive treatment with either a mitral valve replacement or valvuloplasty is NYHA functional class III or IV symptoms. Another option is balloon dilatation. To determine which patients would benefit from percutaneous balloon mitral valvuloplasty, a scoring system has been developed. Scoring is based on 4 echocardiographic criteria: leaflet mobility, leaflet thickening, subvalvar thickening, and calcification. Individuals with a score of ≥ 8 tended to have suboptimal results. Superb results with valvotomy are seen in