Valvular Heart Disease

Improving the Treatment of Heart Valve Disease

An Efficient, Personalized Consultation

During a highly efficient evaluation, often completed in a single day, our cardiac surgeons and cardiologists collaborate to determine the best course of care for you. Consultations are available at our hospitals as well as offsite outpatient practices that may be closer to your home. You may even be able to have your evaluation or get a second opinion remotely, through our telehealth platform. We’ll work with you to arrange the most convenient consultation to meet your needs.

Choosing the Most Effective Therapy

Some people with heart valve disease don't need a procedure right away. You may have regular check-ups with your doctor and take medication (such as blood pressure drugs to reduce the stress on your heart) or make lifestyle changes (such as exercise and healthy eating). If these measures are not sufficient to improve your health, you may have your heart valve repaired or replaced through a catheter-based procedure or surgery. Your doctors collaborate to determine the most appropriate treatment.

Which Heart Valve Will I Receive?

Replacement heart valves may be made of man-made materials (such as metal or ceramic) or natural tissue. The choice of valve is customized to your needs, taking into consideration your age, other medical conditions, lifestyle, and your ability or willingness to take certain medications, such as blood thinners.

Advancing the Field through Research

Virtually every advance in transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) for aortic stenosis has had its roots at NewYork-Presbyterian. Our doctors were the principal investigators of the national clinical trials establishing the effectiveness of TAVR. In the PARTNER trial, they helped show that balloon-expandable transcatheter valve replacement in people at high risk for traditional surgery is safe and as effective as open-heart surgery. Most recently, in the PARTNER 3 trial, our team demonstrated that patients with aortic stenosis causing severe symptoms who were considered low risk for surgery and were treated with TAVR had low rates of death or disabling stroke at one year and a shorter hospital stay than following open-heart surgery.

A Record of Success

More than half of the interventional cardiologists who perform TAVR in this country were trained by our specialists. Our doctors perform the largest volume of valve procedures in the northeastern United States, including more than 4,600 TAVR procedures. Our TAVR program is now among the largest in the United States, with more than 550 cases a year and 70 percent of patients able to leave the hospital by the second day. At NewYork-Presbyterian, our in-hospital mortality rates for valve surgery patients are significantly lower than expected and below national rates.

Clinical Trial Opportunities

Our investigators are participating in — many cases, leading several — national clinical trials evaluating new heart valve devices and approaches, including those for people needing aortic valve surgery and mitral valve surgery. We were principal investigators for the multicenter national PARTNER and PARTNER 3 trials and also participated in the clinical trial of the JenaValve device for high-risk patients with aortic regurgitation. You may have the opportunity to participate in a clinical trial of a new heart valve therapy.