Heart valve disease may be present at birth (congenital). It can also occur in adults due to many causes and conditions, such as infections and other heart conditions. The problems may include; Regurgitation, Stenosis, and Atresia. In some cases people with a heart valve disorder may not have any symptoms, while others may experience conditions like strokes, heart attacks, and blood clots if the heart valve disorder goes untreated.
Causes:
Your heart has four valves that keep blood flowing in the correct direction. These valves include the mitral valve, tricuspid valve, pulmonary valve and aortic valve. Each valve has flaps (leaflets or cusps) that open and close once during each heartbeat. Sometimes, the valves don’t open or close properly, disrupting the blood flow through your heart to your body. Heart valve disease may be present at birth (congenital). It can also occur in adults due to many causes and conditions, such as infections and other heart conditions like Regurgitation, Stenosis, Atresia etc.
Treatment:
Heart valve disease treatment depends on how severe your condition is, if you’re experiencing signs and symptoms, and if your condition is getting worse.
Surgery options include:
Repair Heart Valve
Your doctor may often recommend heart valve repair when possible, as it preserves your heart valve and may preserve heart function. To repair a valve, surgeons may separate valve flaps (leaflets or cusps) that have fused, replace the cords that support the valve, remove excess valve tissue so that the leaflets or cusps can close tightly or patch holes in a valve. Surgeons may often tighten or reinforce the ring around a valve (annulus) by implanting an artificial ring.
Heart valve replacement
In some cases, the valve can’t be repaired, and surgeons may perform heart valve replacement. With heart valve replacement, your surgeon removes the damaged valve and replaces it with a mechanical valve or a valve made from an animal or human heart tissue (biological tissue valve).
Procedure:
Heart valve surgery can be performed using standard open-heart surgery, which involves cutting your chest through your breastbone. Minimally invasive heart surgery involves smaller incisions than those used in open-heart surgery.
Minimally invasive heart surgery includes surgery performed using long instruments inserted through one or more small incisions in the chest (thoracoscopy surgery), surgery performed through a small incision in the chest, or surgery performed by a surgeon using the assistance of a robot (robot-assisted heart surgery). However, invasive heart surgery might involve a shorter hospital stay, quicker recovery and less pain than you’d have with open-heart surgery. This heart surgery ideally should be performed at medical centers with medical teams experienced in performing these types of procedures.
Recovery Timeline:
Post-surgery the patient is kept in high dependency unit or ICU for monitoring the condition of the patient and then shifted to the normal room/ward once the vitals are stable. In order to improve the blood circulation and for quick recovery the patient is directed to start walking as soon as possible followed by the cardiac rehabilitation to regain strength.
Costs:
The surgery cost ranges from USD 6000 – USD 12000 in India. Cost of Cardiac Treatment without insurance is extremely high, which prompts people to travel to countries like India for their cardiac treatment. For people who are covered by insurance, but find the cost very high, also choose to travel to India for their treatment for the quality cardiac treatment at most affordable cost.