The American Heart Association (AHA) has updated its recommendations for heart valve patients.
Recommendations include less invasive options such as abnormal valve replacement via catheter-based procedures, particularly for high-risk patients, AHA said in a news release. Updated guidelines also spell out the need for patients to take antibiotics before dental work, and the age range for selecting tissue valve replacement was lowered from 60 to 70 years old to 50 to 70 years old, making younger patients eligible for the procedure.
Other guidelines include allowing some patients with atrial fibrillation and heart valve disease to use newer oral anticoagulant medications.
The new guidelines have been published in the AHA journal Circulation and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. They follow the most recent scientific research available since the last guidelines were released in 2014.
“There have been significant developments in the treatment of patients with valve disease using open heart surgery to repair rather than replace leaky valves,” Dr. Rick Nishimura, a professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic and the writing committee co-chair of the new guidelines, said in the release. “For example, we are now able to replace abnormal valves using a catheter-based approach, so that patients at higher risk of surgery can be treated less invasively.”
