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If you’re short of breath, you may have a heart valve problem known as mitral regurgitation. Many patients with heart failure have mitral regurgitation, and it is often severe.
“With the correct medical therapy, we can treat 70% of mitral regurgitation patients with medicine, without the need for surgery,” said Sandhya Murthy, M.D., Co-Director of the Montefiore Nyack Hospital Congestive Heart Failure program and Assistant Professor of Medicine in Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant at Montefiore Medical Center /Albert Einstein College of Medicine. “If you have any type of heart valve problem, including mitral regurgitation, it’s important to see a heart failure specialist who can thoroughly evaluate you and guide you to the best treatment for your condition.”
Mitral regurgitation occurs when blood leaks backward through the mitral valve, one of the heart’s four valves. When the valve is working correctly, it helps prevent blood from flowing backward as it moves through the heart. With a leaking mitral valve, some blood flows from the ventricle through the aortic valve — as it should — and some blood flows back into the atrium.
If regurgitation through any valve is severe enough, it may cause heart failure (when the heart does not pump enough blood to the body). This may produce symptoms ranging from shortness of breath during exertion, coughing, congestion around the heart and lungs and swelling of the legs and feet.
When Surgery is Needed
While the majority of patients can be treated with medication, some may benefit from catheter-based procedures. “Montefiore Nyack Hospital patients who need intervention for valve issues are treated by a highly qualified team with excellent outcomes,” said Ulrich Jorde, M.D., Co-Director of the Montefiore Nyack Hospital Congestive Heart Failure Program. There are a number of minimally invasive surgical procedures that can treat a damaged heart valve.
One procedure uses a device called a mitral clip. A small metal clip, about the size of a large staple, is attached to your mitral valve through a vein in your leg. The clip helps your valve to function properly again. The entire procedure can be done with only a small hole in the groin with a one-day stay in the hospital.
Some Montefiore aortic valve patients can be treated with a minimally invasive procedure called transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). During a TAVR procedure, your doctor inserts a catheter through a blood vessel in your leg to deliver and implant the artificial valve into your heart.
“If you have any type of heart-valve issue, being treated at a heart failure center with access to the latest treatments is key,” Dr. Murthy said. “We can ensure that patients who don’t need surgery can avoid it. For those who do need intervention, our affiliation with Montefiore Medical Center ensures that patients receive world-class care with a very experienced team of cardiologists and surgeons.”
Learn more at www.montefiorenyack.org/congestive-heart-failure. To schedule an appointment with one of our cardiac experts, call 845-348-7500.
