Heart valve disease

What is it?

Your heart has four valves that keep blood flowing in the right direction.

In heart valve disease, one or more of the valves leaks so blood regurgitates.

What are the symptoms?

Some people might not have symptoms for many years. When they do occur, they might include chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness, fainting, swelling of your ankles and feet, fatigue, abdominal swelling. There will be a whooshing sound (heart murmur) when a doctor is listening to the heart with a stethoscope, and possibly an irregular heartbeat.

What causes it?

Each heart valve has flaps that open and close once per heartbeat which prevents blood flowing backwards. If one or more of the valves fail to open or close properly, the blood flow through your heart to your body is reduced.

Heart valve disease may be present at birth (congenital) but also can be due to:

„ The valve flaps not closing properly, causing blood to leak backwards – regurgitation.

„ The valve flaps become thick or stiff and can neither open or close properly – stenosis.

„ The valve not forming properly so the blood flow between the heart chambers is blocked – atresia.

What’s the treatment?

Treatment depends on the seriousness of your symptoms and might include regularly monitoring your condition, making healthy lifestyle changes, taking medications to treat your symptoms, and taking blood thinners to lessen the risk of blood clots if you have atrial fibrillation, which is an irregular heartbeat.

Surgery will repair or replace a diseased heart valve through a cut in the chest in open-heart surgery, though modern techniques favour minimally invasive heart surgery through smaller incisions.