Success rate of heart valve replacement surgery
Valve replacement surgery or valvuloplasty, by replacing fragile and damaged valves with a healthy one, allows your heart to return to normal activity, but how much is the success rate of heart valve replacement surgery or or how successful are valoplasties?
If you are going to have valvoplasty, join until the end of the article.
Why is a heart valve replacement done?
Our heart has four chambers, two atria are at the top and the two lower chambers of the heart are called the right and left ventricles. There is a complete muscular wall between the ventricles and between the atria.
There is a tricuspid valve between the right atrium and the right ventricle.
The valve at the right ventricular outlet is called the pulmonary valve.
The mitral valve is located between the left atrium and the left ventricle, and the aortic valve is located at the exit of the left ventricle and the beginning of the aortic artery that exits the heart.
Aging, high blood pressure, congenital heart valve disorders, ischemic coronary heart disease and inflammation such as rheumatic fever, etc. can cause narrowing or stenosis of the valves or their failure.
In heart valve insufficiency, blood bounces back from the insufficient valve, meaning that if, for example, the aortic valve fails, the amount of blood that enters the aorta from the left ventricle returns to the left ventricular cavity.
Symptoms of heart valve disorders
Heart valve disorders can be accompanied by the following symptoms:
- Fatigue
- lightheadedness
- Shortness of breath
- Cyanosis or darkening of the mucous membranes, such as darkening of the mucous membranes inside the mouth
- Fluid retention and swelling of the legs
- Chest pain
In people with severe forms of valvular disorders, the only solution is complete valve replacement or valvuloplasty.
Replacement valves can be obtained from an individual donor body (biological), although other types of biological valves have been used (from pigs and cattle) or can be made artificially (mechanically).
Artificial heart valves are made of carbon and polyester; well tolerated by the human body, they will generally have a useful life of ten to twenty years.
Usually, if biological valves are interpreted, anticoagulants will not need to be used for life, but these valves are not as durable as mechanical valves and need to be replaced.
Types of valve replacement surgery or valvoplasty:
- Replacement of mitral valve or bicuspid valve
- Aortic valve replacement surgery
- Valve Replacement of mitral and aortic valves (Double valve replacement)
- Pulmonary valve replacement
- Mitral valve replacement or bicuspid valve:
When the mitral valve, which is located between your left atrium and your left ventricle, cannot be fully opened and completely closed after blood flow has passed, or tightens, blood accumulates in the right atrium and even goes back to the lungs.
In these cases, it is recommended to replace the mitral valve, biological valve or artificial metal and mechanical valve, will replace your mitral according to your doctor's discretion.
But how successful is mitral valve replacement surgery?
People who undergo mitral valve surgery are ninety-one percent more likely to survive five years after valve replacement surgery.
The following conditions and factors play an important role in the success of mitral valve replacement and survival:
- Age of the individual
- The individual's general health condition
- Cardiac function
- Other heart problems
In other words, each person has a personal risk that is determined by the treating physician
- Aortic valve replacement surgery
The blood in the left ventricle enters the aortic artery after passing through the aortic valve and spreads throughout the body.
The aortic valve, which is congenitally or acquiredly defective or regurgitated and narrowed, cannot pump enough blood into the aorta and will require valvuloplasty.
Sometimes congenitally the aortic valve, which must have three flaps or three parts, has only two flaps.
What factors determine the success rate of aortic valve replacement?
The success rate of aortic valve replacement depends on the individual patient:
- Patient age
- Underlying diseases of the patient such as high blood pressure and diabetes, etc.
- General health conditions of the patient
- And...
All are effective in determining the success of aortic valve replacement.
In general, ninety-four percent of people survive the aortic valve valvuloplasty for up to five years.
- Mitral and aortic valve replacement(Double valve replacement):
This type of valve replacement surgery is less common. In this surgery, the mitral and aortic valves are replaced at the same time. The success rate of this type of valve replacement will be less than the above cases and the mortality rate will be slightly higher.
- Pulmonary valve replacement:
This valve is located at the exit of the right ventricle and is usually narrowed due to inflammation and infection, congenital disorders, etc.
aortic and mitral valve replacement is the most common valvuloplasty, tricuspid and pulmonary replacement is uncommon in adults.
Evaluation of survival and success of valve replacement surgery:
Valve replacement surgery is an open heart surgery performed after lifting the ribs. It takes two hours or more and the recovery period takes several weeks.
After heart valve replacement surgery (usually the aortic or mitral valve), the minimum survival rate was about 9.1 years, this rate is higher in younger people (people under 50). The minimum lifespan of people under the age of 50 who have had aortic or mitral valve replacement surgery is about 4.4 years.
The success rate of heart valve replacement surgery, in addition to age, will also depend on the general health of the body and the underlying diseases.