New developments in the treatment of valvular heart disease
The heart has four valves that ensure blood flow in one direction only, helping to ensure its proper function, specifically the tricuspid, mitral, pulmonary and aortic valves.
The valves are made up of strong, thin membranes called leaflets, which are connected to the myocardium, the heart muscle.
The mitral and aortic valves, the “inlet” and “outlet” valves respectively, of the left ventricle, which in turn is the main “pump” of our heart, are the parts that show the most frequent damage, in percentage terms. It is estimated that in a percentage exceeding 15% of the population over 65 years of age there is serious dysfunction in at least one heart valve.
In addition, there are many of us who know and have been diagnosed with a valve disease, such as mitral valve prolapse or the presence of a bicuspid aortic valve, from a young age.
Symptoms of valve disease:
The symptoms that are usually manifested by valve disease are: easy shortness of breath and fatigue, pain or heaviness in the chest, tachycardia or even fainting episodes.
Often, heart valve dysfunctions are serious and threaten the smooth functioning of the heart and lungs. Many times, valve disease acts “insidiously” since it can cause irreversible damage to our heart, even before we experience any specific symptoms. This is precisely the reason why preventive screening for possible valvular heart disease is mandatory with a very common examination, the heart ultrasound.
New developments in the treatment of valvular heart disease:
Treatment of serious valvular heart disease usually requires surgical intervention. Especially in cases of mitral valve disease and in cases of aortic valve insufficiency, the goal is to preserve the valve and perform valvuloplasty, that is, repair, instead of replacement. In the past, our natural valves were removed and prosthetic metal or biological valves were placed in their place.
These procedures were accompanied by short-term and long-term complications, such as bleeding, thrombosis, and heart infections.
These side effects are eliminated by performing valvuloplasty, where we keep our natural valve repaired, with excellent long-term results and often without the need for additional medications.
Thus, nowadays it would not be an exaggeration to say that mitral valve replacement for insufficiency can be considered an amputation procedure since the valve can be repaired and maintained with valvuloplasty, a procedure that is clearly safer and with greater long-term benefits for the patient.
Specialization and Organized Hospital Structures:
Interventions to treat valvular diseases require specialization, modern hospital equipment and cooperation between medical specialties that deal with the heart. They can be performed with small incisions, endoscopically or even transcatheterally without making an incision in the sternum and are safe.
At both the Athens Medical Center and the Thessaloniki Inter-Balkan Medical Center, our team has had success rates of mitral valve regurgitation that reach an absolute 100% since 2018, which places us in the highest positions in Europe.
In cases where the affected valve cannot be corrected (such as aortic valve stenosis), then it must be replaced.
The correct choice of the appropriate prosthetic valve to be placed plays a crucial role in this. Now, there are new materials and technologies that allow us to place a new generation of mechanical valves that require lower doses of anticoagulant drugs and are therefore safer, biological and designed for younger ages.
Additionally, we are now able to offer transcatheter solutions that greatly speed up the duration of the procedure. In this case, too, the incisions remain small, while there are also completely percutaneous transcatheter replacement options.
