Valve Clinic
The Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center Valve Clinic combines outstanding clinical care, advanced imaging and surgical excellence to provide centralized evaluation and treatment options for complex valve disease.
Learn moreRESEARCH:
Medtronic CoreValve® U.S. Pivotal Trial
The Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center studies replacing a diseased heart valve through a tiny single incision in patients with aortic stenosis..Read more
IN THE NEWS:
Houston, TX - 2/20/2012
Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center implants its first Sapien valves
As the "baby boom" generation ages, the need for cardiac valve surgery increases as well. Cardiovascular surgeons at the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center offer a complete range of valve repair surgery and valve replacement surgery options.
Reasons for damage to the valves may include:
- Rheumatic fever or other infections
- Cardiomyopathy (weakening of the heart muscle)
- Myxomatous valve degeneration (weakening of valve tissue)
The most common types of valve surgeries are repair of mitral valves (between the heart’s upper-left and lower-left chambers) and aortic valves (between the lower-left chamber and the aorta).
Valve Repair
As recently as two decades ago, valve replacement surgery was considered standard therapy for patients with damaged valves. Today, innovative techniques have made it possible for many damaged valves to be surgically repaired, improving valve performance while reducing the need for anticoagulant therapy.
Surgeons at the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center are leaders in the application of advanced heart valve repair surgery techniques. A sophisticated evaluation scale is used to rate the function and condition of the patient’s valve, helping us to make accurate, quantitative decisions about the appropriate treatment.
Valve Replacement
In cases where the valve cannot be repaired, our surgeons provide the full range of options for valve replacement heart surgery. In addition to standard replacements using mechanical valves and stented animal-tissue (xenograft) valves, the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center is a leader in the implantation of stentless xenograft valves.
Unlike stented valves, these prosthetic valves are not mounted within a metal ring. As they are much less likely to cause blood clots, they do not generally require patients to take long-term anticoagulant therapy. Longer-term data on these transplants seems to suggest improved performance and long-term survival versus stented xenograft valve replacements.
For more information about treatment of valve disease and degeneration at the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center, please call 713-DEBAKEY (332-2539) or complete our online contact us form.
