The heart is a pump consisting of muscle tissues. The heart has four chambers of pumping: two upper chambers called the atria, and two lower chambers, called ventricles. Valves within each pumping chamber of the heart keep blood through the heart.

• Tricuspid valve - Located between the right atrium and the right ventricle
• Pulmonary Ventricle - Located between right ventricle t and pulmonary artery
• Mitral Valve - Located between the left atrium and left ventricle
• Aorta - Located between the left ventricle and the aorta

If valves are damaged or diseased and do not function the way they may need repair or replacement. The heart valve surgery cost in India is one of the factors to be considered before opting any surgery. Conditions that can cause dysfunction of the heart valve are stenosis of the valve (stiffness), and regurgitation of the valve (leak valve).

Valve repair or replacement surgery is usually done to fix complications caused by one or more heart valves that have been diseased. If your heart valve(s) gets impaired or sick, you may experience the following symptoms:

• Dizziness
• Chest pain
• Breathing problems
• Swelling of feet, ankles or abdominal (belly)
• Palpitations
• Rapid weight gains due to fluid retention

The healthcare provider may have other reasons to prescribe heart valve repair or replacement surgery.

There are many different techniques for the heart valve repair or replacement surgery depending on the issue.

1. Surgical valve repair- Operating procedures are commonly used for mitral or tricuspid valve issues.

• Commissurotomy is done to cure for a tight tube.
• Annuloplasty is performed for a leaky tube.
• Valvulotomy is a technique for the enlargement of narrowed cardiac valves.

2. Non-operative valverepair - The percutaneous or catheter-based procedures are performed without any chest incisions or heart stoppage. Instead, a  flexible thin tube called a catheter is sent in through your groin or arm through a blood vessel and then threaded through your heart through the blood vessels.

• Valvuloplasty/valvotomy percutaneous or balloon is used in pulmonary, mitral or aortic valves that are stiffened or narrowed (stenosed).
• Percutaneous mitral valve repair methods-such as edge-to-edge repair-can fix a leaky mitral valve in a patient who is at high risk for surgery.

3. Replacement of heart valve- If your heart valve is too badly damaged to fix it may require surgery to replace it with a new mechanical or biological valve. Age is usually a factor in determining which type to use-for older people; biological valves are typically favoured. You and your doctor will discuss solutions and decide which you and your circumstances are better off as the valve replacement surgery cost in India is also high.

• Initially used in valve repair surgery were mechanical valves made of long-lasting metals, iron, ceramics, and plastics.
• Biological or tissue valves (also known as bioprosthetic) are specially designed natural valves that come from human donors or animals.

There are a lot of lifestyle changes and procedure that one has to follow before and after the surgery, if one is opting for any of the above treatment.