Medical Questions » Heart Questions » Question No. 486
| Question: | The hospital doctor said that I probably had mitral valve stenosis. Is this serious? |
| Answer: | The mitral valve is situated between the upper and lower chambers of the heart. It acts to prevent the blood going in the wrong direction in the heart.
Stenosis is the medical turn for narrowing. If the valve is narrowed, blood may be slow in passing from one chamber of the heart to the next. If the problem is mild it will cause no symptoms and require no treatment. If it is severe, the heart will start to fail, and fluid may build up in your lungs. This can be treated in the early stages by medication, but if it becomes more severe you will require surgery to replace the valve. Surgery is very successful and a relatively routine operation these days.
A doctor can detect the condition by listening to your heart, and an abnormal murmur will be heard as the blood rushes through the narrowed valve. Further i nvestigations involving X-rays and othet examinations of the heart would be necessary before surgery was contemplated.
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