Heart valve surgery is a procedure to treat heart valve disease. Heart valve disease involves at least one of the four heart valves not working properly. Heart valves keep blood flowing in the correct direction through your heart.
The four valves are the mitral valve, tricuspid valve, pulmonary valve and aortic valve. Each valve has flaps — called leaflets for the mitral and tricuspid valves and cusps for the aortic and pulmonary valves. These flaps open and close once during each heartbeat. Valves that don’t open or close properly disrupt blood flow through your heart to your body.
A double valve replacement is a replacement of both the mitral and the aortic valve or the entire left side of the heart. This type of surgery is not as common as the others and the mortality rate is slightly higher.
Heart valve replacement surgery is performed under general anesthesia with techniques that are either conventional or minimally invasive. Conventional surgery requires a large incision from your neck to your navel. If you have less invasive surgery, the length of your incision can be shorter and you can also reduce your risk of infection.
