Patients diagnosed with aortic stenosis should get major heart surgery within months of diagnosis, even if they don’t feel unwell, new research suggests.
Aortic stenosis is a narrowing of the aortic valve opening, where blood flood between the left ventricle and aorta is restricted.
The operation to replace a damage aortic valve is usually only performed when a patient is critical.
But in the new research, patients who underwent the treatment immediately after diagnosis were twice as likely to avoid strokes and heart attacks than those who went without.
When symptoms of aortic stenosis begin, only 50 per cent of patients survive without the treatment.
And in those patients who already feel unwell, the procedure may be too risky so is only performed on patients whose lives are at immediate risk.
Researchers at the University of Belgrade Medical School in Serbia recruited 157 adults with symptom-free aortic stenosis.
Half underwent surgery while the other half were monitored by doctors.
After two-and-a-half years, the surgery group had half the number of strokes, heart attacks, unplanned hospitals and deaths than the untreated group.
Dr Marko Banovic, cardiologist and lead investigator of the trial, said: “Without treatment, these impairments may progress and become irreversible by the time valve-replacement surgery is done.
“There may be more serious complications, including heart attack, stroke and death.’
In the three-hour surgery, surgeons usually replace the affected valve with a metal one.
The heart is then restarted and the opening in the chest is closed.
Mr Kulvinder Lall, a heart surgeon at Barts Health NHS Trust, supports the early intervention.
He said: “Over time, stenosis can cause lasting damage to the heart because it’s having to work extra hard. Even after a replacement, patients can still encounter dangerous heart complications.”
Replacement values rarely have to be replaced, so most patients won’t see their condition worsen after they are treated.
