Annuloplasty

Overview

An annuloplasty is a surgery to tighten, reshape or strengthen the ring around a heart valve. Surgeons may do this during other treatments to repair a heart valve.

Why it's done

A surgeon does an annuloplasty to reshape, strengthen or tighten the ring around a damaged or diseased heart valve.

The ring around a valve in the heart is called the annulus. It can widen and change from its usual shape. The shape change may prevent the valve's flaps from opening and closing as they should. So blood can leak backward through the valve. This is a condition called valve regurgitation. A heart that is larger than usual or a leaky heart valve may cause the annulus to change shape.

A surgeon may do an annuloplasty to fix the valve. Other surgeries to repair a heart valve may be done at the same time.

What you can expect

In an annuloplasty, the heart surgeon measures the size of the existing ring around the valve. Then the surgeon sews a band to the existing ring. The band may be rigid or flexible.

A surgeon can do an annuloplasty during open-heart surgery. Or a surgeon can do an annuloplasty with minimally invasive heart surgery, which involves smaller cuts. With either method, your surgery team gives you a mix of medicines to put you in a sleeplike state. The medicines are called general anesthetics.

Researchers are studying less invasive ways to do annuloplasty and other heart valve treatments using long, thin tubes called catheters. These are called transcatheter treatments.

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