Heart Valve Disease
Heart valve disease occurs when one or more of your heart valves don't work properly.
Each year, millions of Americans are diagnosed with heart valve problems.
Complications of heart valve disease
When a heart valve does not open all the way, or has problems closing, blood doesn’t move through the heart’s chambers the way it should, which can leave you weak and short of breath.
Left untreated, heart valve disease can lead to stroke or heart failure.
About the UPMC Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery
UPMC's Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery is the largest heart surgery program in western Pennsylvania and one of the largest in the United States.
We offer standard and minimally invasive procedures to treat heart valve disease and other serious heart diseases and defects.
What distinguishes our program?
- Our subspecialty centers — for evaluating and managing heart valve disease. Our Valve Center is one of only a few sites in the country where a TAVI (transcatheter aortic valve implantation) clinical trial is taking place.
- Our cardiac surgeons — pioneers of novel cardiac surgical procedures, including new techniques for durable valve repair on both mitral and aortic valves.
- Our experience — our surgeons have performed over 2,700 valve procedures in the last three years.
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