VALVES ANALYSIS PART 3
In this article, we pretty much talk about the treatment of the bad valve.
In these pictures, we see the inflation of the specialty balloon across the aortic valve.
In this video, the balloon is placed across the valve, but is "squeezed out" by a combination of the valve closing and the forward flow out of the ventricle.
In this video, we see the valvuloplasty balloon placed across the valve and inflated. In order to reduce the forward flow out of the ventricle to prevent pushing the balloon out of position, the patient was paced at 220 bpm until the inflation was completed. Because the heart is being so fast, it does not fill up enough with blood. This reduces the stroke volume significantly and the cardiac output decreases as well. (Remember: CO = HR x SV). During this process, the patient is likely to 'pass out' while the forward flow is blocked by the inflated balloon. This is self-limiting and resolves once the balloon is deflated.
In this video, we see the specialty balloon for mitral valvuloplasty. It is the Inoue Balloon (Toray, Inc.). It is as special '2 balloon' system. You can see that the distal balloon is inflated (ventricle) and is gently pulled back to be seated against the mitral valve. The proximal balloon is then inflated, which results in the mitral valve valvuloplasty.
