title: [Indications for surgery for valvular heart disease].
abstract: Due to the demographic change, chronic valvular heart disease becomes increasingly important - especially age-related primary diseases of the aortic and mitral valve as well as secondary diseases of the mitral and tricuspid valve caused by other age-related cardiac disorders. Medical treatment is limited to symptom relief by use of diuretics. Specific drugs or drugs with a prognostic benefit are not available. Thus, valve repair or replacement are the key options for treatment of relevant valvular heart disease. While open heart surgery was the only approach for a long time, interventional, catheter-based therapies have evolved in the last decade. This article describes up-to-date recommendations on indications for surgery for the most prevalent valvular heart diseases in adults - aortic stenosis, and aortic, mitral and tricuspid regurgitation).
authors.affiliation: Klinik III für Innere Medizin, Uniklinik Köln.
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Halbach
authors.affiliation: Klinik für Herz- und Thoraxchirurgie, Uniklinik Köln.
authors.forename: Thorsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wahlers
authors.affiliation: Klinik III für Innere Medizin, Uniklinik Köln.
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Baldus
authors.affiliation: Klinik III für Innere Medizin, Uniklinik Köln.
authors.forename: Volker
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Rudolph
mesh_terms: D006328:Cardiac Catheterization / Q000379:methods*; D058385:Cardiac Valve Annuloplasty / Q000379:methods*; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006349:Heart Valve Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery*; D019918:Heart Valve Prosthesis Implantation / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D019060:Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D018579:Patient Selection; D016896:Treatment Outcome