What does it mean when a valve is stenotic?
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What does it mean when a valve is stenotic?
Aortic valve stenosis — or aortic stenosis — occurs when the heart’s aortic valve narrows. The valve doesn’t open fully, which reduces or blocks blood flow from your heart into the main artery to your body (aorta) and to the rest of your body.
What does stenotic aortic valve do?
Aortic stenosis is one of the most common and serious valve disease problems. Aortic stenosis is a narrowing of the aortic valve opening. Aortic stenosis restricts the blood flow from the left ventricle to the aorta and may also affect the pressure in the left atrium.
Is aortic stenosis life threatening?
Aortic stenosis is the abnormal narrowing of the aortic valve, which restricts the flow of blood from the ventricle into the aorta. Aortic stenosis can be a serious and potentially life-threatening condition. Treatment options include procedures or surgery to repair or replace the faulty valve.
How do they fix aortic stenosis?
Aortic valve replacement is often needed to treat aortic valve stenosis. In aortic valve replacement, your surgeon removes the damaged valve and replaces it with a mechanical valve or a valve made from cow, pig or human heart tissue (biological tissue valve).
Is aortic stenosis curable?
However, there are no medications that can reverse aortic stenosis. The only cure is replacing the diseased valve. Usually, heart valve replacement requires open-heart surgery.
Can you live a normal life with aortic stenosis?
Patients with aortic stenosis can live full and rewarding lives. However, they may need to be monitored by a heart specialist with office visits and periodic testing. In many cases, aortic stenosis is discovered in patients before they develop any symptoms.
What happens if aortic stenosis goes untreated?
If left untreated, severe aortic stenosis can lead to heart failure. Intense fatigue, shortness of breath, and swelling of your ankles and feet are all signs of this. It can also lead to heart rhythm problems (arrhythmias) and even sudden cardiac death.
