Heart valves are necessary to the proper flow of blood in and out of the heart. Blood only flows in one direction through the heart, and because of that the valves serve the purpose of opening at the right times and then closing again to prevent the blood from flowing back in the wrong direction.

Blood enters the heart after it has deposited its oxygen in various parts of the body. It is then pumped into the lungs where it picks up more oxygen to take back to the body and that scenario is played out with each beat of the heart. If a heart valve weakens, for some reason, the blood can begin to back up in the heart and this prevents an adequate supply moving through the body to carry oxygen and nutrients to tissues and organs. This is called regurgitation.

Stenosis is another disorder of the heart valves. This happens when the valves get thicker, or they become stiff, or they might even fuse together. With stenosis, again, the blood flow is interfered with and the heart has to work harder to push adequate amounts of blood through the body.

With either of these conditions, the heart works harder in order to make up for the lack of blood flow, but this causes the heart to enlarge and become even less capable of doing the job it was designed to do.

There is something that can be done when a person has heart valve disease. Once diagnosed, the patient can be given certain medications that will help the heart to cope with this condition. Valve repair or replacement is also an option when medication and other measures have failed.

Below is a list of procedures that surgeons can perform to repair a valve.

1. Commissurotomy, used to open narrowed valves
2. Valvuloplasty, surgeons attach a ring-like apparatus that will strengthen and give support to help the valve close more snuggly
3. Reshaping, surgeons will reshape the leaflet of the valve so that it will close more completely
4. Decalcification, the removal of calcium buildup on the leaflets allowing it to close properly
5. Repair of structural support, supporting cords may be shortened or replaced to give better support to the valve so it can operate properly
6. Patching, surgeons use tissue from the body to repair holes or tears of the leaflets

If a patients heart valves are severely damaged they may need to be replaced. With the advances in medical technology and techniques such as minimally invasive valve surgery, the procedure itself is not as traumatic on the body and the time spent in recovery is shorter than in the past.

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