In high risk cases often requires surgery to repair or replace heart valves in patients with severely damaged valves. Most patients who have RHD have the condition called mitral stenosis. Mitral stenosis restricts the blood flow from the left atrium to the left ventricle.
Generally, this means less blood that goes through, the more severe the problem becomes. The symptoms for this typically can occur 10-20 years after the first occurrence of rheumatic fever as a child.The most common surgery for RHD is balloon valvuloplasty. (also called percutaneous balloon valvuloplasty) This is caused by narrowing of the aortic valve, the condition referred to as aortic valve stenosis. This can be seen in figure 1. This surgical procedure is used to open