Congenital Heart Disease

Aortic Stenosis

Signs and Symptoms
Diagnosis
Treatment

Treatment

In babies, surgical treatment is a valvotomy, a procedure that splits the deformed valve leaflets to enlarge the opening without having to replace the valve. However, this procedure is successful only if the aortic valve is still thin enough to be manipulated. Stenosis eventually causes the valves to stiffen. Another surgery may be required later in life to further repair or replace the valve.

Children may be treated with a balloon valvoplasty, a non-surgical procedure in which a catheter -- a thin, flexible, plastic tube -- is inserted into the heart via blood vessels from the leg. A balloon at the tip of the catheter is inserted into the narrow opening in the valve and then inflated to stretch the valve opening and separate the valve leaflets.

In adults with severe stenosis, treatment is more likely to include surgical replacement with either a manufactured valve or a valve from another human. Another surgical repair is removing obstructive tissue, which may be done in conjunction with valve replacement.

Patients with aortic stenosis need preventive antibiotics to avoid heart infections during surgery or dental work. People with mild stenosis usually don't require treatment besides antibiotics. Medications may be used to control symptoms such as high blood pressure or heart rhythm problems, but don't control the stenosis itself.

Last reviewed in March 2003 by health care specialists at UCSF Children's Hospital.