Heart Valve Repair and Replacement Surgery

Your heart valves keep blood flowing in the right direction throughout your heart. If one of your valves isn’t working properly, blood flow can be reduced or head in the wrong direction. Over time, heart valve problems can affect your heart rate, breathing, energy level and more.  

Mercy heart specialists can determine how serious your valve condition is and discuss your treatment options. The first decision is whether your valve should be repaired or replaced. Your doctor will consider your general health, the amount of valve function, the presence of other health conditions and the expected benefits of surgery.

Heart valve problems that may require surgical repair or replacement include:

• Aortic valve regurgitation
• Aortic valve stenosis
• Mitral valve regurgitation
• Mitral valve stenosis

Valve Repair Surgical Options

At Mercy, we use minimally invasive techniques for repairing valves and restoring normal blood flow, including:

• Robotic-assisted heart surgery to access damaged valves in hard-to-reach areas and with greater precision
• Transcatheter mitral valve repair (TMVR) to treat regurgitation using a special device called MitraClip® ― a small clip that’s attached to your mitral valve, allowing it to close more completely
• Balloon valvuloplasty to temporarily widen a valve using a balloon at the end of a catheter

Traditional open-heart surgery is a less common treatment option used for valve repair.

Valve Replacement Surgical Options

If valve replacement is needed, you and your Mercy doctor will discuss whether to use a mechanical or tissue replacement valve.

Your doctor will consider:

• If you’re already taking (or could safely take) blood-thinning medication, since it’s needed with a mechanical valve
• Your age, since mechanical valves last longer than tissue valves

Types of procedures include:

• Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) a less-invasive valve replacement technique using a catheter
• Traditional open-heart surgery to replace valves if other techniques aren’t possible, but it’s less common

Your Mercy heart team helps you clearly understand the benefits and limitations of various surgical options. Our goal is to get your heart working properly and get you back on your feet, so you can continue to live a full and active life.