| There are four valves in the heart that enable the unidirectional blood flow in a healthy person. Disease, injury or congenital defect may cause damage to one or more of the valves, thus affecting blood flow and function of the heart as a pump.
A damaged valve can be replaced with an artificial mechanical valve, and sometimes can also be repaired. Over the last few years, a considerable advantage has been proved with surgery for mitral and aortic valve repair rather than replacement. Currently, our department repairs approximately 90% of the mitral valves and only 10% are actually replaced. Such a high rate of successful repairs is achieved only in leading international centers.
Our department performs valve replacement surgery using the heart-lung machine, but, similarly to leading international centers, we perform complex mitral valve surgery.
An additional field of expertise in our department is the minimally invasive approach to this type of surgery, i.e. replacement or repair of aortic and mitral valves without sawing the sternal bone. |
