The Heart Valve Center: The Chester County Hospital Advantage

As part of Penn Medicine, the experts at The Chester County Hospital Heart Valve Center treat heart valve conditions from routine to highly complex. If you require more advanced care, you have access to the latest procedures and devices available at Penn’s hospitals in Philadelphia. When our experts treat your valve disease, you can count on:

• Multidisciplinary Care Focused on You: At your first visit to the Heart Valve Center, you will see a cardiac surgeon, interventional cardiologist and an advanced practice provider. We will also pair you with a heart and vascular nurse navigator who coordinates all aspects of your care. Meet our heart and vascular team.
• Experience in Catheter-Based Interventions: When appropriate, we offer minimally invasive treatment options, including MitraClip™ therapy and TAVR. These procedures require only a few small incisions instead of open-heart surgery. Patients may experience fewer complications and faster recovery.
• Renowned Surgical Skills: Our cardiac surgeons perform complex valve repair and replacement when other regional hospitals cannot. If you need the more advanced care of a leading academic medical center, we streamline your access to the team at Penn’s Philadelphia campus.
• Accessible Innovation: Penn is an international leader in developing new therapies for heart valve repair and replacement. Our participation in our clinical trials gives you access to new treatments not available elsewhere in the region.

What is Valve Disease?

Your heart has four valves: the aortic, mitral, tricuspid and pulmonary valves. They work to pump blood in the right direction through and out of the heart. Each valve has flaps (also called cusps or leaflets) that open and close to control blood flow.

If you have heart valve disease, the flaps on one or more of these valves do not function correctly. Causes of heart valve disease include congenital heart conditions (present at birth), rheumatic fever, infection and age.

There are two common ways that a heart valve can fail:

• Stenosis: Valve stenosis means the flaps are stiff or thickened. In some cases, they may be fused together. Stenosis causes your valve to narrow, limiting the flow of blood.
• Regurgitation: Also known as leaky valve or valve insufficiency, regurgitation happens when your valve flaps do not close securely. Blood may leak backward through the valve. Your heart must pump harder to push blood in the right direction.

Heart Valve Diseases We Treat

At The Chester County Hospital Heart Valve Center, we diagnose, manage and treat heart valve diseases, including:

• Aortic Valve Conditions: If you have been diagnosed with aortic valve regurgitation, aortic valve stenosis or bicuspid aortic valve disease (BAVD), our specialty-trained aortic valve team provides disease management and advanced treatment options.
• Mitral Valve Conditions: Our cardiac team treats mitral valve prolapse, mitral valve regurgitation and mitral stenosis. We are experts in complex mitral valve repair and offer both minimally invasive surgery and catheter-based treatment options for mitral valve disease.
• Pulmonary Valve Conditions: Pulmonary valve stenosis is a congenital condition that is usually first treated in childhood but may require additional treatment as an adult. We monitor your condition and repair or replace your pulmonary valve when necessary.
• Tricuspid Valve Conditions: While tricuspid stenosis is a congenital condition diagnosed and treated in childhood, tricuspid valve regurgitation can occur in adults. Penn experts surgically repair or replace tricuspid valves and are involved in innovative catheter-based trials to replace the valve.

Cardiac Valve Care at Chester County Hospital

Our surgeons and cardiologists treat heart valve disease with both surgical and nonsurgical procedures. Whenever possible, we repair your existing valve. If your need a valve replacement, our multidisciplinary team works with you to select the best option.

Depending on your unique diagnosis, age and health, our heart valve treatment options include:

• Open-Heart Surgery: During open-heart surgery, our cardiac surgeons access your heart through an incision in your chest, called a sternotomy. A heart-lung bypass machine keeps blood pumping to your body while our surgeons repair or replace your valve.
• Minimally Invasive Surgery: Whenever possible, our cardiac surgeons repair and replace heart valves using minimally invasive and robotic surgery. These procedures reduce recovery time and post-surgical pain while getting you back to your daily life quickly.
• Catheter-Based Procedures: Our interventional cardiologists lead the way in catheter-based procedures, which use tiny tubes inserted through a blood vessel to reach your heart. This approach allows us to repair or replace your valve when surgery is not an ideal option.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Speak with a Nurse Navigator

To learn more about heart valve disease treatment options at Chester County Hospital, please fill out the form below and a nurse navigator will contact you shortly.