If you have heart valve disease, the idea of major open-heart surgery is scary. At UVA Health, you have options. Besides the traditional procedures, we also offer ways to help you avoid a major surgery.
Why Choose UVA for Heart Valve Treatment
Age or health can make open-heart surgery too risky. We offer a range of options that don’t require opening up your chest.
Instead, we use a small tube (called a catheter) to reach your heart. Your doctor places the catheter into your blood vessels (usually in the leg or groin area). Then, we send a replacement valve or other device through your blood vessels and place it in your heart (a kind of minimally invasive procedure).
Our Advanced Cardiac Valve Center is one of few places in the U.S. that offers this range of less-invasive procedures for heart valve treatment. Our nationally-recognized surgeons treat cardiac valve disease of your 4 heart valves:
- Aortic valves
- Mitral valves
- Pulmonary valves
- Tricuspid valves
UVA Health does more transcatheter aortic valve replacements than anywhere else in the region. We also have the largest MitraClip® program in the United States. We’ve performed over 250 transcatheter valve procedures. This means better outcomes for you.
Top-Rated Valve Surgery Expertise
At UVA Health, 4 of our heart, vein, and artery treatments received the highest possible rating from U.S. News & World Report, including aortic valve surgery (ranked as "high performing").
Advanced Valve Options
Mini-Valve Surgery
For some patients, mini valve surgery can be done instead of traditional heart surgery. That means smaller cuts on your body and a faster, easier recovery.
Find out if mini valve surgery is right for you.
MitraClip® & TAVR
We're one of the first places in the country to offer the MitraClip® and TAVR procedures. These are two of the newest alternatives to open-heart surgery.
Your Heart Valve Team
Our surgeons and staff work together to give you the best care possible. That means finding new ways to treat valve conditions through clinical research trials.
Interventional cardiologists, heart and vascular surgeons, and imaging specialists each use their special expertise to make sure you get the right diagnosis and come up with a treatment plan that's just right for you.