Valvuloplasty

A heart with narrowed valves can't pump as efficiently as a normal heart, and has trouble delivering blood to the body. Open heart surgery is generally recommended to correct these valves. Some patients however are too sick to undergo surgery. In certain circumstances valvuloplasty can take the place of more intensive valve repair or replacement surgeries. Valvuloplasty can repair the heart valves of people with dangerously narrow valves. It is used to fix narrowed aortic valves (aortic stenosis), as well as narrowed mitral valves (mitral valve stenosis).

Valvuloplasty uses a thin, flexible tube called a catheter to widen a narrowed heart valve. With the patient awake and under local pain medicine, the doctor inserts a special catheter into an artery or the vein usually near the patient's groin. Using an X-ray camera, the doctor guides the catheter to the site of the damaged heart valve. The catheter has a deflated balloon at its tip. When this balloon is inflated, it widens the narrowed opening in the valve. This improves blood flow through the heart, and helps the heart deliver blood to the rest of the body. The balloon is then deflated and the catheter removed. Patients usually stay in the hospital overnight and return home the next day. This procedure is routinely performed by Krannert cardiologists.