A valvulotomy, valvotomy,
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Citing: WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2008 Princeton University, Farlex Inc. valvuloplasty, or valvoplasty is a procedure used in heart valve surgery that consists of making one or more incisions at the edges of the commissure
A commissure () is the location at which two objects abut or are joined. The term is used especially in the fields of anatomy and biology.
* The most common usage of the term refers to the brain's commissures, of which there are five. Such a commi ...
formed between the two (mitral valve), or three tricuspid
The tricuspid valve, or right atrioventricular valve, is on the right dorsal side of the mammalian heart, at the superior portion of the right ventricle. The function of the valve is to allow blood to flow from the right atrium to the right ven ...
valve leaflets. This relieves the constriction of valvular stenosis (especially mitral valve stenosis
Mitral stenosis is a valvular heart disease characterized by the narrowing of the opening of the mitral valve of the heart. It is almost always caused by rheumatic valvular heart disease. Normally, the mitral valve is about 5 cm2 during d ...
).
As with many other kinds of surgery, a valvulotomy may be carried out using by either open
Open or OPEN may refer to:
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* ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969
* ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999
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* ''Open'' ( ...
or minimally invasive
Minimally invasive procedures (also known as minimally invasive surgeries) encompass Surgery, surgical techniques that limit the size of incisions needed, thereby reducing wound healing time, associated pain, and risk of infection. Surgery by d ...
approaches, and sometimes (but not invariably) the terms ''surgery'' and ''surgical'' are understood to refer only to the open types, with the minimally invasive types then being referred to as interventional procedures. The minimally invasive approach is through the lumen of a vessel with a catheter
In medicine, a catheter (/ˈkæθətər/) is a thin tubing (material), tube made from medical grade materials serving a broad range of functions. Catheters are medical devices that can be inserted in the body to treat diseases or perform a surgi ...
, which is why it is often called a transluminal or transcatheter approach. Such approaches begin with a small skin incision to access a vessel that will lead to the heart, making them percutaneous {{More citations needed, date=January 2021
In surgery, a percutaneous procedurei.e. Granger et al., 2012 is any medical procedure or method where access to inner organs or other tissue is done via needle-puncture of the skin, rather than by using ...
approaches, and they use balloons whose inflation moves the valve leaflets. Thus, all together, they are called by names such as ''percutaneous balloon valvulotomy'', ''percutaneous balloon mitral valvuloplasty'', ''percutaneous aortic balloon valvotomy'', and so forth.
See also
* Heart valve repair
References
Cardiac surgery
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