Heart Valve Repair and Replacement

What are heart valves?
The heart consists of four chambers—two atria (upper chambers) and two ventricles (lower chambers).

Blood passes through a valve before leaving each chamber of the heart. The valves prevent the backward flow of blood.

These valves are actual flaps that are located on each end of the two ventricles (lower chambers of the heart).

They act as one-way inlets of blood on one side of a ventricle, and one-way outlets of blood on the other side of a ventricle.

Normal valves have three flaps, except for the mitral valve, which has two flaps. The four heart valves include the following:

• Tricuspid valve: located between the right atrium and the right ventricle
• Pulmonary valve: located between the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery
• Mitral valve: located between the left atrium and the left ventricle
• Aortic valve: located between the left ventricle and the aorta