Heart Valve Repair & Replacement Program

Diagnosis & Treatment

Diagnosis of Heart Valve Disease

Our program offers advanced diagnostic and evaluation methods to allow our specialists to monitor heart valve disease and ensure the best treatment is recommended before permanent heart damage occurs.

After a consultation with one of our specialists, your evaluation may include:

• Echocardiogram
• Transesophageal echocardiography
• Cardiac imaging, including CT and MRI
• Cardiac stress testing
• Cardiac catheterization, if required.

Treatment of Heart Valve Disease

The results of your evaluation are carefully reviewed by our team of specialists to determine the most appropriate treatment for your condition. If heart valve disease is mild, ongoing monitoring, medications and lifestyle modifications may be recommended.

If surgical intervention is necessary, our specialists will develop a treatment plan that will take your age, heart valve condition, overall health and many other factors into consideration.

Heart valve repair

When possible, surgeons aim to repair the patient’s own valve to restore its function. Heart valve repair procedures include:

• Minimally invasive valve repair techniques
• Leaflet repair
• Annuloplasty
• Chordal repair

Heart valve replacement

If a heart valve cannot be repaired, it can be replaced with either a mechanical or biological valve. We offer a number of minimally invasive procedures to ensure the most effective and suitable procedure for every patient.

Minimally invasive heart valve procedures

If suitable, a catheter-based procedure will be offered to avoid traditional, open-heart surgery. This can reduce recovery time, length of stay in hospital and the complications associated with major surgery.

Advanced, minimally invasive heart valve procedures include:

• Transaxillary mitral or aortic valve procedure: A minimally invasive procedure that accesses the mitral or aortic valves through a small incision in the armpit area (the axilla).
• Robotically assisted mitral valve repair: Robotic technology to repair the mitral valve through small incisions in the chest. It is used to treat mitral valve regurgitation and other mitral valve conditions.
• MitraClip implantation: A minimally invasive catheter-based procedure that clips together part of the mitral valve to reduce leakage. It is used primarily to treat severe mitral regurgitation.
• Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR): Also known as Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI), this is minimally invasive procedure to replace a diseased aortic valve using a catheter. It is usually used to treat severe aortic stenosis. Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi was the first hospital to offer TAVR/TAVI in the region.
• Transcatheter Edge-to-Edge Repair (TEER) for selected mitral and tricuspid valve disease: A minimally invasive procedure to repair leaking mitral or tricuspid valves by bringing the valve leaflets closer together. This improves the valve's ability to close properly and can be used to treat mitral regurgitation or tricuspid regurgitation.
• Transcatheter Tricuspid Valve Replacement (TTVR): A minimally invasive procedure for selected patients with severe tricuspid valve disease, the procedure replaces the tricuspid valve using a catheter. Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi performed the first transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement for a native valve in the UAE bringing this innovative treatment to patients in the region.