The disease itself is regarded as one of the most widespread heart problems. It affects mostly elderly people and makes surgical treatment an extremely difficult task. Sometimes, an acquired aortic myocardial defect develops against the background of the underlying disease, which may be carcinoid syndrome, diabetes, lupus erythematosus, and ochronosis.
Symptoms of aortic valve stenosis
- Labored breathing during exercise stress.
- Angina attacks.
- Exhaustion and muscular weakness.
- Rapid beating of the heart.
- Fainting after a quick change in body position.
- Dizziness as a result of a sudden stop after walking.
- Attacks of paroxysmal dyspnea and fluid lungs.
In some cases, while being in the stage of compensation, aortic stenosis may not have any clinical manifestations, and the general condition of the patient may be satisfactory. One of the most significant symptoms of this heart disease is trembling just above the aorta, which is felt during palpation.
Therapy
When talking about aortic stenosis treatment, it’s worth noting that in a case of the acquired disease, the underlying condition is primarily treated. All varieties of stenosis are remedied depending on the intensity of their pathological processes. The slow and asymptomatic development of heart disease does not need timed OP treatment, and rapidly developing stenosis, as a rule, requires surgical substitution of the aortic valve. An intense complication of aortic heart disease symptoms means a more serious danger to the patient’s health or even life than complex surgery.
Aortic defect, the treatment of which was delayed and the disease developed to an advanced stage (or a severe form), leaves the patient no more than several years of life. In cases when open-heart surgery is contraindicated (adolescents, patients with poor health and the elderly), balloon valvuloplasty can be prescribed. This technique implies an introducing a thin balloon into the valve opening, followed by its inflation and expansion of the aortic orifice. Balloon valvuloplasty is a more reliable and safer intervention than open-heart surgery. Elderly people with abovementioned problem are not prescribed treatment in the form of this procedure, as age-related changes in the body make its effect short-term.
Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is executed without a chest incision in a working heart. Moreover, this operation is often performed under local anesthesia. The aortic valve, which has lost its function, is destroyed, through a puncture on the thigh, using special catheters. An artificially created biological prosthesis is installed in its place. The introduction of TAVI into practice has helped patients who recently were considered inoperable or belonged to the category of patients with a very high risk of surgical intervention.