Heart Valve Surgery

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Heart valve disease can cause painful symptoms and hinder your heart’s ability to pump blood. While medication can help, many people need heart valve surgery to repair or replace a damaged heart valve.

At Baystate Health, we offer a wide range of heart valve surgeries right here in western Massachusetts. We have the skilled cardiac surgeons, advanced technology, and extensive expertise needed to restore your heart function.

What Is Heart Valve Surgery?

Heart valve surgeries repair or replace damaged heart valves and treat valve disease. These procedures help improve valve function and prevent serious complications, such as heart failure, blood clots, and stroke.

We treat conditions affecting all four heart valves :

Aortic valve, located between the left ventricle and the aorta
Mitral valve, between the left atrium and left ventricle
Tricuspid valve, between the right atrium and the right ventricle
Pulmonic valves, located between the right ventricle and the lungs

Heart Valve Repair

Heart valve repair lets you keep your natural valve. We most commonly perform valve repair for conditions affecting the mitral valve. Valve repair may be performed as open-heart surgery, minimally invasive open-heart surgery (using small incisions between the ribs), and minimally invasive valve (endovascular) repair.

Heart Valve Replacement

Heart valve replacement removes (displaces) a damaged valve and replaces it with a new valve. Most often, this involves replacing the aortic valve. The procedure can be done with traditional open-heart surgery, minimally invasive open-heart surgery, or a less invasive approach such as transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR).

We use two types of replacement valves:

Biological valves made from tissue from a cow or pig heart. These last for 10 to 15 years.
Mechanical valves made from metal or plastic. These last forever but require you take blood thinners for the rest of your life.

Conditions Treated With Heart Valve Surgery

Heart valve surgery helps treat:

Regurgitation, or blood flow back through the valve, caused by a wide or leaky valve
Stenosis, a narrowed and stiff valve that restricts blood flow
Atresia, a structural heart defect present at birth, in which a heart valve has no opening, preventing blood flow

Types of Heart Valve Repair We Offer

Our team has the specialized skills and advanced technology needed to perform all types of valve repairs. We help you choose the option that’s best for your heart.

Open-Heart Valve Repair

Open heart surgery is the most effective way to repair a valve by:

Fixing the flaps that open and close the valve
Adding support
Patching holes
Reinforcing the valve
Separating any fused tissue

Minimally Invasive Valve Repair

Minimally invasive valve repair lets surgeons fix valves without having to open the chest. The smaller incisions mean less chance of complications and faster recovery.

Minimally invasive valve repair options include:

Transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER) using clips, to tighten leaky mitral valves. A surgeon makes a small incision in the groin and traces a small tube (catheter) through the vessel to the heart. There, they clip part of the valve, preventing leakage.
Annuloplasty, to tighten leaky valves and enlarged aortic valves. A surgeon makes small incisions in the chest, then places a mesh ring around the leaky valve. The ring helps reinforce and tighten the valve.
Valvuloplasty, to open narrowed valves. A surgeon inserts a catheter with a balloon on the end into a blood vessel near the groin. They trace the catheter to a narrowed heart valve and inflate the balloon. This widens the valve and increases blood flow.

Types of Heart Valve Replacement We Offer

We offer open-heart and minimally invasive heart valve replacement surgeries, including:

Open-heart valve replacement, in which a surgeon opens the chest and makes an incision in the heart to reach the faulty valve. They remove the old valve and replace it with a new one.
TAVR (transcatheter aortic valve replacement) treats aortic stenosis. A surgeon guides a catheter with a new valve on a stent (frame) and a balloon to the damaged valve. They inflate the balloon to push aside the old valve and expand the new one. The new valve regulates blood flow without needing to remove the old valve.

Why Choose Baystate Health for Heart Valve Surgery

When you come to us for a heart valve procedure, you can expect:

Leading-edge innovations: Our surgeons perform the latest valve surgeries, including minimally invasive valve repair and replacement. We also participate in research and clinical trials to bring you the most advanced treatments available.
Deep experience: Our team performs more than 400 TAVR procedures per year — more than any program in Boston. Our experience translates to better results for you.
Lifetime valve management plan: We help you make a lifelong plan to keep your valves healthy. Our team customizes treatment plans based on your age, medical conditions, preferences, and how many valves you’ll need in your life.
Multidisciplinary approach: We have the technical expertise across specialties to provide exceptional care. Subspecialists in cardiac surgery, interventional cardiology, and echocardiography collaborate to determine the best approach for your treatment.
Personalized care and support: We’re committed to supporting you through each step of heart valve surgery. From initial tests through recovery, your surgeon listens to your preferences, includes you in care decisions, and takes the time to answer your questions and address any concerns.

Benefits and Risks of Heart Valve Surgery

Heart valve surgery can ease valve disease symptoms, prevent life-threatening complications, and help you live a longer life.

Complications of heart valve surgery are rare. If they occur, they can include:

Bleeding
Heart attack
Heart failure
Stroke

What to Expect Before Heart Valve Surgery

On the day of your surgery, you’ll sign consent forms before heading to the operating room.

A large team of experts including anesthesiologists, nurses, perfusionists (who operate the heart-lung machine), and physician assistants works together to keep you comfortable and safe.

What Happens During Heart Valve Surgery

During surgery, your surgeon will:

Make an incision and access your heart. Open-heart surgery uses an incision down your entire chest bone. Minimally invasive open-heart surgery uses smaller incisions between ribs. Endovascular procedures use a small, centimeter-long incision in your groin or small incisions in your chest. Open-heart surgery uses an incision down your entire chest bone. Minimally invasive open-heart surgery uses smaller incisions between ribs. Endovascular procedures use a small, centimeter-long incision in your groin or small incisions in your chest.
Put your body on a heart and lung machine, if necessary. This machine does the work of your heart and lungs so your body receives blood flow during surgery.
Safely stop your heart.
Repair or remove and replace your heart valve.
Restart your heart.
Close your chest (open-heart surgery) or remove the catheter (minimally invasive surgery).

Typically, open-heart surgery takes about four to six hours. Minimally invasive surgeries take less time.

Recovery After Heart Valve Surgery

After open-heart surgery, you move to the intensive care unit (ICU) to recover. Most patients spend one to two nights in the ICU before being moved to a regular hospital room. In total, most people spend three to five nights in the hospital after valve surgery.

Full recovery from heart valve surgery can take up to two months. You’ll have follow-up appointments with your surgeon to check your heart health. Your team may also recommend cardiac rehabilitation to help you build strength, regain movement, and relearn how to do basic tasks, including walking, eating, and showering.