All about Heart Valve Replacement Surgery in India

by Deep Ray Health

Heart valve replacement refers to procedures aimed at replacing your own heart valve, rather than repairing your own valve. If a surgeon cannot repair a heart valve, the valve is removed and replaced with an artificial (prosthetic) valve by sewing it into the remaining tissue from the natural valve. Throughout the world, 90% of all valve replacements are performed for mitral or aortic valves. The mitral valve is positioned in the heart´s left side, between the left upper chamber (left atrium) and the left lower chamber (left ventricle). The aortic valve separates the left ventricle from the aorta (which carries blood to the body).

As a general guide, however, you may be a candidate for valve replacement surgery for any of the following reasons:

You have significant valve narrowing or leaking (regurgitation) that is causing severe cardiac symptoms, such as angina , shortness of breath, syncope (fainting spells) or symptoms of heart failure.
Although your cardiac symptoms are not yet severe, diagnostic tests show that you have valve stenosis or regurgitation that is beginning to seriously affect your heart function.
You have milder valve stenosis or regurgitation, but you need open-heart surgery for another reason (such as coronary artery bypass). Your problematic heart valve can be replaced during this open heart procedure, correcting the situation before it has the chance to deteriorate.
Your heart valve has been damaged severely by endocarditis (infection of the heart valve), or you have endocarditis that is resistant to antibiotics.
You already have a prosthetic heart valve, but it needs to be replaced because it is leaking or malfunctioning, because you are having recurring blood clots or infection on the heart valve, or because you are having bleeding problems related to anticoagulants.

Valve replacement surgery in India usually uses two types of valves namely, mechanical valves, which are usually made from materials such as plastic, carbon, or metal or biological valves, which are made from animal tissue or taken from the human tissue of a donated heart. Valve replacement surgery in India is done with experienced surgeons. Doctors in these countries are as qualified and as skilled as their western counterparts. This is because a majority of doctors working in these hospitals have been trained in hospitals in USA and UK or have done their higher studies in these countries. The death rate among patients during surgery is only 0.8 percent-less than half that of most major hospitals in the United States. The number of registered nurses in these countries is far greater than in USA. And some hospitals even offer a 24/7 nurse-on-call for each individual patient. So, the care you get is much better than what you might expect in an American hospital.

Procedure:

Traditionally, repair or replacement of heart valves has involved open-heart surgery, which means that the chest is opened in the operating room and the heart stopped for a time so that the surgeon may repair or replace the valve(s). In order to open the chest, the breastbone, or sternum, is cut in half and spread apart. Once the heart is exposed, large tubes are inserted into the heart so that the blood can be pumped through the body during the surgery by a cardiopulmonary bypass machine (heart-lung machine). The bypass machine is necessary to pump blood because the heart is stopped and kept still while the surgeon performs the valve repair or replacement procedure.

Newer, less invasive techniques have been developed to replace or repair heart valves. Minimally-invasive procedures in which the incision is much smaller often mean less pain postoperatively and shorter hospital stays. Valvuloplasty is another method that may be used to treat valve stenosis in some cases.

The diseased valve may be repaired using a ring to support a person's own valve, or the entire valve may be removed and replaced by an artificial valve. Artificial valves may be mechanical (made of metal or plastic) or tissue (made from animal valves or human valves taken from cadavers).

Other related procedures that may be used to assess the heart include resting and exercise electrocardiogram (ECG), Holter monitor, signal-averaged ECG, cardiac catheterization, chest X-ray, computed tomography (CT scan) of the chest, echocardiography, electrophysiological studies, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the heart, myocardial perfusion scans, radionuclide angiography, and ultrafast CT scan.

The heart Valve Replacement Surgery in India is beneficial in terms of cost and holidays. Medical tourism combines treatment and tourism in beneficial package for everyone. So, what exactly are the benefits of medical tourism and why do people travel abroad for simple and complex medical procedures? The main factor that encourages medical travel is undoubtedly the high cost of medical care in developed countries like the United States. Most medical travel destinations offer surgeries at almost one-third the costs of developed countries. This translates into bigger savings for a person who has to undergo a complex medical procedure like a valve replacement surgery.

For more information contact :

http://www.wecareindia.com/heart-surgery/pediatric-aortic-valve-replacement-repair-surgery.html

http://www.wecareindia.com/heart-surgery/valve-repair-surgery.html