“How do you fix a leaky heart valve without surgery?”
I am a 39 year old male. I want to know how do you fix a leaky heart valve without surgery?
1 Answer
That depends on which valve. The leaky Aortic Valve can be 'replaced' by placing a (collapsed) valve on a catheter tip and advancing it (through a leg artery) up to the heart where it is expanded (within the old valve by way of a balloon). In the case of a leaky Mitral Valve, once again a catheter is advanced through the leg to the correct spot. However, this time it carries up little clips that are correctly positioned to "pinch" together the area of the valve that was leaking because it didn't close properly.
