Your doctor will watch your health closely if you have mild mitral valve regurgitation. This would include routine examinations and having an ECHO (echocardiogram) performed. You may take medicine for other health problems that are caused by mitral regurgitation. If the disease progresses into a more severe form, the valve may need to be repaired or replaced.
Your physician may refer you to the Valve Clinic at Parkview Heart Institute where the care team will complete a physical exam and personal history to identify health conditions that may be contributing to mitral valve regurgitation. The team will discuss which therapies will be most appropriate for you.
While treatment options are dependent on the severity of the disease, the goal is to improve the heart function, thereby reducing symptoms and avoiding MVR related complications.
- Medications: Help manage your mitral regurgitation symptoms
- Surgery: Repair or replacement of the faulty valve may be needed. To assist those with more severe cases of MR, the Parkview Heart Institute offers mitral valve clipping in addition to other surgical options to repair or replace the valve. Mitral valve clipping is a minimally invasive procedure in which a narrow catheter is fed up to the heart through an artery in the groin. The catheter is guided through the septum, which divides the top two chambers of the heart. This procedure uses clips that are attached to the leaflets within the mitral valve. The leaflets are clipped together, resulting in improved proper blood flow and reduced symptoms.
- Transcatheter mitral valve repair (TMVr): TMVr delivers a treatment option for patients who are not good surgical candidates, or for whom surgery is not the best option. Open-heart surgery to repair or replace the mitral valve is generally recommended, but it is not an option for many patients.
