The life expectancy of a person with a bad heart valve is around 1 to 3 years depending on how bad the heart valve is and with a replacement heart valve the life expectancy of a person with a replacement heart valve is around 10 to 20 years.
Your body can reject a new heart valve although most heart valves take and most peoples body's do not reject the heart valve.
Biological or bioprosthetic heart valves are most often made from pig or cow tissue although sometimes they are made from human tissue which are then called homograft valves and are treated to make sure it is not rejected by the body.
The heart valve replacements are built to create the original heart valve's exact mechanical properties.
The best blood thinner for an artificial heart valve and heart valve replacement is Warfarin or Coumadin which keeps blood clots from forming on the heart valve surfaces.
You will usually need to take a blood thinner if you have a mechanical heart valve that is made of cloth, metal or plastic.
Foods that you cannot and should not eat after heart valve replacement are processed foods, high fat foods, foods high in sugar, fat and salt, red and processed meats and poultry or chicken with skin, foods with added sugars, sweets, sugary treats, cakes, biscuits with sugar, cereals with sugar, pastries, sauces and syrups.
Replacement heart valves usually last for 20 years or sometimes longer and usually last the rest of your life.
A person can have a heart valve replacement up to 3 times before it leads to more possible serious complications including possible death.
The cost of heart valve replacement surgery ranges from $50,000.00 to as much as $200,000.00 and most health insurance and Medicare will pay for heart valve replacement surgery.
The age that people get valve replacement surgery is between 70 to 75 years of age although some people get heart valve replacement surgery after 75.
If you don't replace or repair a bad heart valve the heart valve will continue to worsen and lead to heart failure which then leads to death.
Untreated heart valve disease can lead to your heart working harder and eventually failing.
The heart valve that is most likely to fail is the mitral valve although any of the heart valves can fail.
Mitral valves do sometimes leak with age and mitral valve regurgitation can happen as you age because the mitral valve can degenerate slowly over time.
If your mitral valve does not close as it should it can allow the blood to leak backwards through the heart valve and or regurgitate.
The hospital stay for heart valve replacement is around 7 weeks.
Full recovery from heart valve replacement can take 2 to 3 months and you should then feel like your normal self again.
Foods to avoid after valve replacement or heart valve replacement are foods and medicines containing Vitamin K, foods with a lot of salt, foods containing refined carbohydrates and processed meats.
Also you should avoid tea and coffee, alcohol and soft drinks and carbonated drinks after heart valve replacement.
Repairing a heart valve and replacing a heart valve is major surgery and carries some risks of serious complications and some can even be fatal.
However most people go through and come out of heart valve surgery just fine but how you recover and how fast you recover can vary from person to person.
The easiest heart valve to replace is the aortic valve and is one of the heart's 4 valves.
The heart valves help the blood flow through your heart's 4 chambers and out to the body normally.
The surgery to replace an aortic valve is usually minimally invasive and uses a smaller incision than a traditional open repair and leads to easier and faster recovery from the heart valve replacement surgery.
The symptoms of a failing heart valve are irregular heartbeat, fainting, swelling of the feet and ankles, dizziness, chest pain, fatigue and shortness of breath which can occur at rest, when active or when lying down.
A heart valve cannot be fixed without some type of surgery although there is noninvasive procedure for fixing a bad heart valve or leaky heart valve which is called a MitraClip procedure.
In more severe cases open heart surgery may be required to fix the bad heart valve or leaky heart valve.
The life expectancy of a person with a bad heart valve is 1 year to 2 years without treatment although with treatment or surgery a person with a bad heart valve may live a normal life expectancy.
A collapsed heart valve can be fixed using a ring that supports the damaged and collapsed heart valve and can be removed and replaced by an artificial heart valve.
The artificial heart valves can be made from carbon coated plastic or tissue and even made from animal heart valves or from human heart valves taken from donors.
A collapsed heart valve is serious although it's not usually life threatening in most people.
In most cases though a collapsed heart valve or mitral prolapse is not life threatening and does not always require treatment or other changes to your current lifestyle.
Some people however may need medications or even surgery, especially in cases where the mitral valve prolapse causes severe regurgitation.
The collapsed or diseased heart valve may be repaired using a ring to support the damaged valve, or the entire heart valve may be removed and replaced by an artificial valve.
Artificial heart valves may be made of carbon coated plastic or tissue (made from animal valves or human valves taken from donors).
Many people with heart valve problems live long and healthy lives and never realize they have a mild heart valve problem.
However, if left untreated, advanced heart valve disease can cause heart failure, stroke, blood clots or death due to sudden cardiac arrest.
Aortic heart valve disease is the deadliest heart valve disease and causes around 6 in 10 deaths due to heart valve disease.
Mitral valve prolapse, also known as Barlow syndrome, is a type of heart valve disease where the flaps (also called leaflets or cusps) of the mitral valve become enlarged or stretched.
These enlarged flaps in the heart bulge (prolapse) into the left atrium as the heart contracts with each heartbeat.
There are no exercise restrictions when you have mitral valve prolapse, although doctors recommend the usual lifestyle practices of abstaining from smoking and limiting alcohol consumption.
To maximize heart health with mitral valve prolapse, doctors advise eating a heart-healthy diet, getting regular exercise, and consulting a cardiologist periodically.
Depending on the severity of the leak into the left atrium during systole (mitral regurgitation), the left atrium and/or left ventricle may become enlarged, leading to symptoms of heart failure.
These symptoms include weakness, fatigue, and shortness of breath.