HeartValveSurgery.com: Aortic Regurgitation—What Should You Know?

HeartValveSurgery.com recently interviewed Pedro Catarino, MD, director of Aortic Surgery and professor of Cardiac Surgery in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai, about aortic valve regurgitation—a potentially dangerous condition in which blood flows backward into the heart’s left ventricle. 

Catarino told Adam Pick, the founder of HeartValveSurgery.com, that the aortic valve, which regulates blood flow from the heart to the body, has three leaflets that press together. When they don’t close properly, they leak.

“A leaky valve results in the heart having to do more work because each time it beats it expels all the blood, but with aortic regurgitation, some of that blood comes back, and the heart has to do extra work,” he said. “The heart can compensate to a certain extent for the leak by dilating a bit.”

Catarino told Pick that when aortic regurgitation is not treated, the dilated—or enlarged—heart muscle can develop scar tissue, known as fibrosis, and lead to serious health problems.

“Once [fibrosis] starts to develop, the chance to recover that muscle by having the valve repaired or replaced is diminished and it starts a patient down a path towards heart failure,” he said.

Catarino told Pick that surgery to repair or replace the valve is the best treatment approach, and success rates are high.

“We can bring patients’ life expectancy back up to the normal, expected [level] for their age with any of these procedures, whether it’s repair, repair with aneurysm correction, or replacement,” he said.

Click here to read the complete article and watch the video from HeartValveSurgery.com.