Once your valve problem becomes severe, and you begin to have symptoms, getting treated immediately is important.  Severe valve leak or block can be treated by repairing or replacing your valve. One way this can be done is through open heart surgery (also called surgical valve repair or replacement) to replace a diseased aortic valve. It is typically consider major invasive operation and requires a patient be placed on a heart and lung blood machine while under general anesthesia.

 

Despite longer recovery times, open heart surgery is a very common, well-established procedure. More than 200,000 surgical valve procedures are performed across the world each year.