Mitral valve regurgitation

No, but regular exercise and a balanced diet, as well as not smoking are excellent ways of keeping your heart healthy.

You can live with mild or even moderate mitral valve regurgitation for years and have no symptoms or side-effects. 

If it becomes severe, you may develop atrial fibrillation, high blood pressure in the blood vessels supporting your lungs and even heart failure if your heart stops being able to pump enough blood around your body. You may develop fluid in the lungs too.

All surgeries carry some risks, and the risks of surgical mitral valve regurgitation treatment include:

• Bleeding
• Blood clots 
• Developing an infection
• An irregular heartbeat, called an arrhythmia 
• Stroke

There’s also a chance that your repaired or new valve may malfunction, although this is rare.

Mitral valve regurgitation is a progressive disease for most people but it’s hard to generalise about how fast it will advance. It depends on what’s caused it.

Different levels of mitral regurgitation (mild, moderate or severe) require different intervals between monitoring and the underlying cause may also impact how we treat and care for you.

Common tests to diagnose mitral valve regurgitation include having an electrocardiogram (ECG) and echocardiogram. Your specialist will also use a stethoscope to listen for the characteristic mitral valve regurgitation whooshing sound which indicates that you have a leaky valve. 

We’ll be able to diagnose the stage of mitral valve regurgitation that you have by considering your symptoms, the structure of your heart valve or valves and how blood is flowing through your heart and lungs.

Your specialist will use a range of approaches to work out how advanced the disease is for you before recommending the best treatment pathway. This may include taking medication or doing nothing.

The best treatment for you will depend on how mild or severe your mitral valve regurgitation is. 

• If it’s mild, you may not need any treatment at all, your cardiologist may simply recommend monitoring your condition   
• If it’s moderate but you still have symptoms, they may prescribe medications which can help to stop your symptoms from progressing 
• If it’s severe, they may recommend that you have mitral valve regurgitation surgery to repair or replace your mitral valve 

Many people lead happy lives with mitral valve regurgitation. You’ll need to stay in close contact with your healthcare team with regular check-ups and follow their advice.

You may also need to regularly take medication as prescribed, exercise regularly, keep a close eye on your blood pressure and give up smoking and keep your alcohol intake within recommended limits.

It’s important that you let your team know as soon as you notice any changes in your symptoms.

There’s a huge variation in life expectancy with mitral valve regurgitation, depending on what stage your condition has reached. If you have mild mitral valve regurgitation and are asymptomatic, you can have a near-normal life expectancy. 

However, if your condition is severe and left untreated you may have a significantly reduced lifespan. It’s always best to get any worrying symptoms checked out by a specialist, so that your clinical team can intervene in a timely way if necessary. 

Surgical valve replacement or repair can restore your life expectancy, potentially to that of a healthy person in the same age group as you. 

Some forms of mitral valve regurgitation are thought to be hereditary, particularly those caused by mitral valve prolapse. However, for some patients, the disease is caused by lifestyle factors, a heart attack or a congenital heart defect.