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Heart & Vascular Medical Professionals

Valve & Structural Heart Disease Center

Valve and structural heart disease can disturb the normal flow of blood through your heart, affect your overall health and keep you from enjoying the activities you love.

Some of these conditions are present at birth, but others can form later in life due to increased wear and tear on the heart or untreated infections. Although many of these conditions can cause serious complications and be life-threatening, highly effective treatment options are available.

Why Choose University Hospitals for Heart Care?

With more than half a century of expertise, the highly trained team of experts at the Valve and Structural Heart Disease Center of University Hospitals Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute includes some of the world’s most prominent interventional cardiologists and surgeons, supported by specially trained nurses and technicians. This team provides patients with access to innovative diagnostic technology as well as the latest medical advances available through clinical research.

Exceptional Results

Our multidisciplinary clinical team achieves exceptional results for valve repair and replacement surgery. Through our unwavering commitment to clinical research, the Valve and Structural Heart Disease Center has pioneered many complex techniques for valvular surgery.

Over the last decade, we have seen the development of life-saving procedures that often decrease the need for additional surgery, including:

  • Stentless aortic valve prostheses: These biologic (tissue) valves are equivalent to human valve transplants and exhibit excellent hemodynamics (blood flow). UH has some of the greatest expertise with these valves in the world.
  • Mini-thoracotomy for valve repair and replacement, which enables surgery through an incision between the ribs, without opening the sternum, or breastbone.
  • Pioneering procedures such as transcatheter mitral valve in ring, which enables minimally invasive treatment of dysfunctional previously operated mitral valves with a transcatheter valve.
  • Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) which uses local anesthesia and minimum sedation to enable the replacement of the aortic valve with a catheter in a “talking and awake” patient.
  • The only program in Northeast Ohio to offer transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR) for patients with severe mitral valve regurgitation.

UH Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute is a high-volume, highly experienced center for all of these procedures.

Innovation and Leadership

The Valve and Structural Heart Disease Center at UH Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute is recognized as a national and international leader in optimal techniques for TAVR and has pristine outcomes in heart valve surgery and transcatheter therapies. UH physicians train other physicians across the U.S. and around the world on best practices and techniques for transcatheter aortic valve replacement and other minimally invasive procedures.

In addition, UH is part of key clinical trials, which not only ensures its leadership in the field but also enables UH to offer these procedures to a larger number of patients.