beating heart disease together

beating heart disease together

nary What is pulmo stenosis?

Pulmonary stenosis means that your pulmonary valve may be too thick and stiff to open easily. This valve opens to let blood flow from your heart to your lungs. With pulmonary stenosis the muscle of your hearts right ventricle will get thicker as it has to work harder to pump blood to your lungs. Some young people that have pulmonary stenosis have it mildly and you dont need any treatment at all, even when you are older. But for some of you, your valve can become more narrowed as time goes by. If your pulmonary valve is severely narrowed, you will need treatment shortly after your diagnosis is made. Many young people can be treated using a procedure called balloon valvoplasty but if your valve is not suitable for this procedure then surgery is required.

Balloon valvoplasty
This procedure uses a tube (catheter) that goes into your heart through your leg vein and then a balloon inflates on the tube and stretches your valve and then the tube and its balloon are removed. People who have had a good result from balloon valvoplasty or surgery usually do not need any further treatment. But, after any kind of treatment for pulmonary stenosis, your pulmonary valve never works completely normally, and will leak to some extent (some of your blood flows back into the heart through your valve). This leak is very rarely important, but there is a very small chance that some young people might need surgery to replace or repair your valve in later life.

Valve repair/ ery replacement surg

Currently the surgical treatment for pulmonary stenosis is an open-heart operation. The surgeon widens your valve and this reduces the narrowing. Sometimes because the valve is very small, a human donor valve (called a homograft valve) is used to replace your valve. Sometimes the replacement of your pulmonary valve can be done by keyhole surgery rather than open-heart surgery.

Endocarditis
To reduce your risk of getting endocarditis:   eep your teeth and K mouth clean and have regular check-ups with a dentist  void body piercing A and tattooing   ever inject N recreational drugs

Things to talk about

Physical activity Healthy lifestyle Pregnancy Contraception Medicines  (including warfarin)

Your heart

Pulmonary stenosis

Find out more about your heart and visit: yheart.net chfed.org.uk guch.org.uk

onary artery

Narrowed pulmonary valve

Thickened muscle

What is pulmonary Pulmonary stenosis means stenosis? that the pulmonary valve the
pulmonary artery is narrowed. (Stenosis means narrowing.) See the illustrations above. The normal heart
Pulmonary stenosis 11

Normal heart

Pulmonary st

Main pulmonary artery

Pulmonary valve

The British Heart Foundation is the nations heart charity, saving lives through pioneering research, vital information and patient care. You can read more about us by visiting bhf.org.uk

Right ventricle

C4T

British Heart Foundation Greater London House 180 Hampstead Road London NW1 7AW Phone: 020 7554 0000 Fax: 020 7554 0100 Website: bhf.org.uk Registered Charity Number in England and Wales (225971) and in Scotland (SC039426)

Pulmonary ste

pulmonary art