Heart Valve Disease: Yale Medicine Experts Explain

The heart has four valves—the tricuspid, pulmonary, mitral, and aortic—that serve as gatekeepers to the four chambers of the heart. Each valve ensures that blood flows in one direction.

However, there are several problems that can occur with valves and create what’s known as heart valve disease. For example, stenosis is when the valves narrow and it’s hard for blood to flow through. Regurgitation, or leakage, is when the valve doesn’t close properly and the blood flows backwards.

Heart valve disease can be challenging because there may not be symptoms for a long period of time, says Amit N. Vora, MD, MPH, a Yale Medicine interventional cardiologist. And a common symptom—heart murmur, or unusual heartbeat—isn’t something a patient would notice on their own.

While medication can sometimes help with symptoms of heart valve disease, some of the changes that occur with the disease can be irreversible, says John K. Forrest, MD, director of interventional cardiology at Yale New Haven Health Heart and Vascular Center.

“When you have a valve that's not working, you need to fix it. Some valves can be repaired, others can be replaced,” Dr. Forrest says.

Repairing or replacing valves requires either open heart surgery or a catheter-based approach that involves accessing the valve through the femoral artery in the leg. In the video above, Drs. Forrest and Vora talk more about these procedures.