Overview
Cleveland Clinic’s Mitral and Tricuspid Valve Center provides an in depth evaluation of both mitral and tricuspid valve problems including a quantitative assessment of the severity of the valve narrowing or leaking. Our experts will work with you to decide whether medical management and monitoring or a surgical or interventional procedure is indicated and when is the best time for this to be performed. We offer a variety of treatment options for patients with valve disease. Our team offers expertise and experience to provide an individual plan of care with the best outcomes possible.
Who we treat
We treat patients with all forms of mitral and tricuspid valve disease, including:
- Mitral regurgitation (leak)
- Mitral valve prolapse
- Mitral stenosis (narrowing)
- Mitral valve dysfunction with atrial fibrillation (afib)
- Tricuspid regurgitation
- Tricuspid stenosis
- Complex mitral or tricuspid valve disease, including calcified valves and previously repaired or replaced valves
- Mitral or tricuspid valve disease combined with other conditions such as heart failure, pulmonary hypertension, congenital conditions.
Mitral Valve Repair Reference Center Award
Cleveland Clinic has received the Mitral Valve Repair Reference Center Award from the American Heart Association and the Mitral Foundation for its demonstrated record of superior clinical outcomes resulting from evidence-based, guideline-directed degenerative mitral valve repair. The Mitral Valve Repair Reference Center Award was developed to identify, award and promote the nation’s recognized medical centers for mitral valve repair surgery.
Treatment Options
Available treatments
We offer a wide range procedures to manage conditions involving the mitral valve, including:
- Mitral valve repair (We have a nearly a 100% success rate for repair of leaky mitral valves.)
- Minimally invasive and robotic operations (To date we have performed over 2,400 robotic mitral valve surgeries with a repair rate of 99.8%.)
- Mitral valve surgery that is done at the same time as operations on other valves (tricuspid and aortic valves) or bypass surgery
- Mitral valve and tricuspid valve reoperations
- Tricuspid valve surgery
- Catheter-based (non-surgical) approaches:
- Percutaneous mitral balloon valvuloplasty (PMBV)
- MitraClip and the latest transcatheter mitral valve techniques (TMVR) being studied in clinical trials
- Transcatheter tricuspid valve techniques (TTVR) within clinical trials
Our Team
The Cleveland Clinic Valve Center offers a multi-disciplinary team of specialists in cardiology, interventional cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery, specialized imaging, pathology, imaging diagnostics and treatment.
- Brian Griffin, MD – Medical Director
- A. Marc Gillinov, MD – Surgical Director
- Amar Krishnaswamy, MD – Interventional Director
Multidisciplinary Team
Cardiovascular Surgery
- A. Marc Gillinov, MD,* Department Chairman, Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
- Tarek Malas, MD*
- Kenneth McCurry, MD
- Edward Soltesz, MD
- Shinya Unai, MD
- Per Wierup, MD, PhD*
*Performs robotically assisted valve surgery
Cardiothoracic Anesthesia
Cardiovascular Medicine
Diagnoses valve disease and cares for patients over time; sees patients for scheduled office visits, monitoring and medical management.
Section of Cardiovascular Imaging
- Patrick Collier, MD, PhD
- Milind Desai, MD
- Brian Griffin, MD, Head, Section of Cardiovascular Imaging
- Richard Grimm, DO
- Serge Harb, MD
- Wael Jaber, MD
- Christine Jellis, MD
- Vidyasagar Kalahasti, MD
- Allan Klein, MD
- Deborah Kwon, MD
- Venu Menon, MD
- Rhonda Miyasaka, MD
- Zoran Popovic, MD, PhD
- Jay Ramchand, MD, PhD
- Leonardo Rodriguez, MD
- Maran Thamilarasan, MD
- Suma Thomas, MD
- Tom Kai Ming Wang, MBChB, MD
- Bo Xu, MD
Section of Clinical Cardiology
Cardiovascular Medicine – Interventional
Performs transcatheter valve procedures
Mitral & Tricuspid Valve (native disease or prior valve surgery)
- Samir Kapadia, MD, Department Chairman, Cardiovascular Medicine
- Amar Krishnaswamy, MD, Head, Section of Invasive and Interventional Cardiology
Tricuspid Valve - congenital
Appointments
The Mitral and Tricuspid Valve Center is located at Desks J1-5 and J4-1, in the Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute.
Make an Appointment
Due to the nature of valve disease, your needs as a patient can guide your care. For example, you may want to have regular follow-up over a long period of time, or maybe you have just been diagnosed with valve disease and want to establish a care and treatment plan. Perhaps you are exploring treatment options and need a surgery consultation. No matter what your needs, we are here for you every step of the way. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to call.
Traveling to Cleveland Clinic
We want to make traveling to Cleveland Clinic as easy as possible. For information, please click here: Information on travel to the Miller Family Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute.
If you need more information, contact us, chat online with a nurse or call the Heart and Vascular Institute Resource Nurses at 216.445.9288 or toll-free at 866.289.6911. We would be happy to help you.
Clinical Team Appointments
To make an appointment, please call toll-free 800.659.7822 Cardiology Appointments or Request an Appointment online.
Our experts will meet with you and evaluate your condition with echocardiography, stress testing and when necessary more advanced imaging techniques such as cardiac catheterization and transesophageal echocardiography or MRI. We provide second opinion evaluations for those who have been told that a procedure is needed for their valve disease. We will discuss with you how bad your valve disease is, what the consequences for your future are and whether an intervention is needed now to improve your symptoms and/or live expectancy.
If your scheduled appointment is at least one week away, you will be asked to send in a copy of your medical records, including a medical history, test results and films (echocardiogram, ultrasound, chest X-ray, MRI, CT). There are many options for getting your medical records to Cleveland Clinic: Care Everywhere, fax, mail and our image upload system. Learn more.
If your scheduled appointment is less than one week away, please bring your records to your appointment.
What to expect during your appointment:
A cardiologist from the Mitral and Tricuspid Valve Center will review your medical records and prior images and perform a physical exam and perform a physical exam.to enable us to determine change in your condition. We will likely want to perform our own echocardiography here and may request other testing if it will help determine the severity of your condition or the relationship of your mitral valve condition to symptoms and prognosis.
How long will you need to stay at Cleveland Clinic?
You should plan on spending 1 to 2 days in the Cleveland area. Your stay may be longer if a treatment is scheduled at the time of your visit.
Follow-up
Your doctor will talk to you about your plan for follow-up care.
Cardiovascular Surgery Team Appointments
If you would like information about surgical options for valve disease, you can send your medical records to us for a review. The process involves several steps:
- Call 216.444.3500 or toll-free 877.843.2781 (877-8Heart1) 6 a.m. – 9 p.m. EST, Monday - Friday. They will assist you in making arrangements for a surgical review
- You will send in your records to be reviewed by one of our surgeons.
- The surgeon’s office will call you to let you know about your treatment options. The process generally takes a couple weeks once we receive your films, unless your doctor determines that you need surgery right away.
- If you decide to have surgery at Cleveland Clinic, we will give you a surgery date. In some cases, you will see the surgeon for a consultation and surgery will be scheduled after the appointment.
What to expect during your appointment
You will need to arrive a few days before your surgery to have a full evaluation and meet your surgical team. You and your family will attend a program to learn what to expect before, during and after your surgery. See Heart Surgery at Cleveland Clinic for more information about having surgery at Cleveland Clinic.
Interventional Treatments for Valve Disease
- Contact the Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute Resource Nurses, who will collect information such as your contact information and the type of procedure you need. 866-289-6911 or use the contact us form.
- The nurses will give you a list of the information needed to start the process.
The process for Percutaneous Mitral evaluation includes 3 steps:
- Sending in records for review by the Structural Heart Team.
- If you are a possible candidate for a percutaneous/catheter-based treatment, you will have a series of tests and appointments with a surgeon and cardiologist at Cleveland Clinic. Even though these procedures are less invasive than traditional surgery, it is important to understand that they are still a major heart procedure. We will talk to you about your individual relative risks and benefits of the procedure.
- The last step in your evaluation is a final review of your medical records, test results and other information about your health by the Structural Heart Team. They will determine if a catheter based procedure is the best treatment option for you.
How long will you need to stay at Cleveland Clinic?
Your hospital stay depends on many factors, such as your condition, the type of procedure you need and your medical history. Generally, patients who live outside of the Cleveland area come to Cleveland a day or two before surgery, stay in the hospital 5 to 7 days, and stay in Cleveland at least one night after they leave the hospital. We ask that you return to Cleveland Clinic for a visit during the first week after you leave the hospital (post-op visit), so you may want to plan on staying in the area until after that visit.
Follow-up
Your doctor will let you know how often you need to be seen. You may also be able to follow-up by telephone. You will need to have an echocardiogram once a year after your surgery or procedure to make sure your valve is working properly.
Videos
View more Mitral and Tricuspid Valve videos including those that show actual valve surgery.
Video Playlist
- What are the Benefits of Robotically Assisted Heart Valve Surgery? Drs. Gillinov and Malas. (YouTube link)
- Robotic Mitral Valve Repair for Anterior Prolapse Made Easier (Graphic) (YouTube link)
- Mitral Valve Repair Made Easier (Graphic). (YouTube link)
- Robotically Assisted Heart Surgery | What to Expect, Drs. Gillinov and Malas. (YouTube link)
- What should you know if you have tricuspid valve disease? Drs. Kapadia and Krishnaswamy. (YouTube link)
