Heart valve repair is a surgical technique used to fix defects in heart valve

Heart valve

A heart valve normally allows blood flow in only one direction through the heart. The four valves commonly represented in a mammalian heart determine the pathway of blood flow through the heart...

s in valvular heart disease

Valvular heart disease

Valvular heart disease is any disease process involving one or more of the valves of the heart . Valve problems may be congenital or acquired...

s, and provides an alternative to valve replacement

Valve replacement

Valve replacement surgery is the replacement of one or more of the heart valves with either an artificial heart valve or a bioprosthesis . It is an alternative to valve repair.There are four procedures:...

. Without further specification, it refers to native heart valve repair, rather than repair of an artificial heart valve

Artificial heart valve

An artificial heart valve is a device implanted in the heart of a patient with heart valvular disease. When one of the four heart valves malfunctions, the medical choice may be to replace the natural valve with an artificial valve. This requires open-heart surgery.Valves are integral to the normal...

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Valvuloplasty

Valvuloplasty is the widening of a stenotic valve using a balloon catheter

Balloon catheter

A balloon catheter is a type of "soft" catheter with an inflatable "balloon" at its tip which is used during a catheterization procedure to enlarge a narrow opening or passage within the body...

. Types include:

• Aortic valvuloplasty
  Aortic valvuloplasty
  Aortic valvuloplasty is the repair of a stenotic aortic valve using a balloon catheter inside the valve. The balloon is placed into the aortic valve that has become stiff from calcium buildup...
  
   in repair of a stenotic aortic valve
• Mitral valvuloplasty in the correction of an uncomplicated mitral

Valvulotomy

Commissurotomy

Commissurotomy

A commissurotomy is a surgical incision of a commissure in the body, as one made in the heart at the edges of the commissure formed by cardiac valves, or one made in the brain to treat certain psychiatric disorders....

 of cardiac valves is called valvulotomy.

Mitral valve repair

Mitral valve repair is mainly used to treat stenosis

Stenosis

A stenosis is an abnormal narrowing in a blood vessel or other tubular organ or structure.It is also sometimes called a stricture ....

 (narrowing) or regurgitation

Regurgitation (circulation)

Regurgitation is blood flow in the opposite direction from normal, as the backward flowing of blood into the heart or between heart chambers. Can be categorized by:...

 (leakage) of the mitral valve

Mitral valve

The mitral valve is a dual-flap valve in the heart that lies between the left atrium and the left ventricle...

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Aortic valve repair

Aortic valve repair is a surgical procedure used to correct some aortic valve

Aortic valve

The aortic valve is one of the valves of the heart. It is normally tricuspid , although in 1% of the population it is found to be congenitally bicuspid . It lies between the left ventricle and the aorta....

 disorders as an alternative to aortic valve replacement

Aortic valve replacement

Aortic valve replacement is a cardiac surgery procedure in which a patient's failing aortic valve is replaced with an alternate healthy valve. The aortic valve can be affected by a range of diseases; the valve can either become leaky or partially blocked...

. Aortic valve repair is performed less often and is more technically difficult than mitral valve repair

Mitral valve repair

Mitral valve repair is a cardiac surgery procedure performed by cardiac surgeons to treat stenosis or regurgitation of the mitral valve. The mitral valve is the "inflow valve" for the left side of the heart. Blood flows from the lungs, where it picks up oxygen, through the pulmonary veins, to the...

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There are two surgical techniques of aortic-valve repair:

• The Reimplantation-Technique (David-Procedure)
• The Remodeling-Technique (Yacoub-Procedure)