Valve Clinic

Our Valve Clinic, located at UMass Memorial Medical Center, Worcester, MA, is the first and only in Central New England for the complete diagnosis and treatment of cardiac valve disease, including aortic and mitral valve stenosis or regurgitation, and congenital conditions such as bicuspid aortic valves.  

Valve disease occurs when one of the valves in the heart don't work well. Valves open and close when your heart beats allowing blood to flow through the heart. When a valve isn't working, the below may occur:

• The blood can flow in the wrong direction, called regurgitation.
• The valve doesn't fully open to allow enough blood to flow through, called stenosis.

New techniques for the evaluation and management of cardiac valve disease allow our physicians to more precisely detect abnormalities and determine appropriate treatment. Our team of experts works together to determine what type of treatment is most appropriate for you.

A Multidisciplinary Approach to Cardiac Valve Disease

Valve repair is preferred to preserve the patient's own valve and avoid the need for anticoagulation therapy. Our team of experts consists of interventional cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, cardiac imaging specialists, radiologists, geriatricians, vascular surgeons, anesthesiologists, neurologists and radiology technologists.

Procedures to treat valve disease include:

• Advanced surgery for mitral valve repair and replacement
• Balloon valvuloplasty  to treat mitral stenosis and aortic stenosis
• Percutaneous (catheter-based) mitral valve clip repair to treat mitral regurgitation
• Transcatheter aortic valve replacement or surgery to treat aortic stenosis
• Transcatheter mitral valve repair to treat mitral regurgitation
• Valve-sparing aortic root replacement
• Complex aortic root construction of all types