The cardiovascular specialists at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center utilize tried-and-true techniques as well as the latest discoveries to repair or replace the mitral valve of the heart.
The mitral valve is the valve between the left atrium and the left ventricle of the heart:
- The left atrium (one of the heart’s four chambers) acts as a holding chamber for blood returning from the lungs and as a pump to send blood to other areas of the heart.
- The left ventricle (another of the heart’s four chambers) is responsible for pumping oxygenated blood to tissues throughout the body.
You may need surgery or catheter based repair (non-surgical) of your mitral valve if:
- Your mitral valve is hardened (calcified), which prevents blood from moving forward through the valve (known as mitral stenosis).
- Your mitral valve is too loose, so blood tends to flow backward (known as mitral regurgitation).
Mitral valve treatments include:
- Anticoagulant medication, to help keep clots from forming in the blood
- Surgical Heart valve repair or Replacement (with a mechanical valve or a tissue valve made from animal tissues)
- Catheter based (non-surgical) mitral valve intervention using the MitraClip technology to treat severe mitral regurgitation in selected patients
- Catheter based (non-surgical) mitral valvuloplasty used for Rheumatic Mitral Valve Stenosis
- Transcatheter valve replacement using TAVR devices to treat Mitral Valve disease