valvuloplasty

Imagine a stiff, partly stuck valve flap that you ease open by pushing a balloon through and inflating it to stretch the opening wider. Balloon valvuloplasty does this to a narrowed heart valve, widening it with an inflatable balloon delivered by catheter rather than by open surgery.

A catheter carrying a deflated balloon is guided across the tight valve. When the balloon is inflated, it stretches the valve opening and can split fused leaflets, enlarging the area through which blood flows. Because it works from inside a blood vessel, it avoids the chest incision and heart-lung machine that surgical valve repair requires.

Valvuloplasty is most effective and durable for mitral stenosis caused by rheumatic disease, especially in younger patients with suitable valve anatomy. For calcified aortic stenosis in adults its benefit is usually short-lived, so it mainly serves as a temporary or bridging measure before a more definitive option such as TAVR or surgery. It can also widen narrowed valves in children with congenital disease.