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Structural Heart and Valve Program
Experts at the Virginia Mason Franciscan Health structural heart and valve program specialize in diagnosing and treating structural heart conditions using advanced, minimally invasive techniques. Our team provides personalized care to improve heart function, reduce symptoms and enhance quality of life.
Structural heart and valve care: Why choose us?
You can trust the quality of our care. Our program features:
- National recognition: U.S. News & World Report ranked our program No. 1 for cardiac, heart and vascular surgery in Washington, Alaska, Montana, Idaho and Oregon for 2023-2024. Also, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons awarded us a 3-star rating — the highest possible — for several heart procedures, including coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), aortic valve replacement with CABG (AVR + CABG) and mitral valve repair and replacement (MVRR). Only programs that consistently provide the highest quality outcomes earn this distinction.
- Multidisciplinary treatment: Our structural heart team includes cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, interventional cardiologists, and nurses. They have the expertise to diagnose and treat common and complex structural heart or heart valve conditions.
Integrated services: We offer collaborative care delivered across three renowned medical centers: Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma and St. Michael Medical Center in Silverdale.
- Proven excellence: We leverage state-of-the-art catheter-based procedures and surgery tailored to each patient’s needs. Over recent years, our programs have performed more than 2,500 transcatheter procedures.
Conditions we treat
The main types of structural heart problems we treat include:
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Your heart has four valves: aortic, mitral, pulmonic and tricuspid. These valves control blood flow in your heart by opening and closing. Heart valve disease occurs when one or more of your valves don’t open and close normally. Types of heart valve problems include:
- Regurgitation: When your heart valves don’t close tightly, some blood can leak backward. Regurgitation usually occurs because of mitral valve prolapse (when the mitral valve cannot close tightly).
- Stenosis: Sometimes, one of your heart valves is too narrow and doesn’t allow enough blood to flow through. Stenosis also occurs when the valve leaflets (flaps of tissue) thicken or fuse, preventing your valve from opening completely.
- Bioprosthetic valve disease: This condition occurs when stenosis or regurgitation affects your existing prosthetic valve. Normal wear and tear or an infection like endocarditis may cause it.
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Congenital (present at birth) heart defects are structural heart problems that occur when your heart is developing before birth. These conditions can affect any part of the heart, including its valves, chambers and muscles.
A ventricular septal defect (VSD) is the most common type of congenital structural heart condition. Other examples include atrial septal defect, patent foramen ovale (PFO), patent ductus arteriosus and tetralogy of Fallot.
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Cardiomyopathies are conditions that affect your heart muscle. Types of cardiomyopathy include:
- Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM): This condition occurs when one of your lower heart chambers (ventricles) is too large. Over time, DCM can decrease the amount of blood your heart can pump, leading to heart failure.
- Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM): HCM causes the heart muscle to thicken and can lead to sudden cardiac arrest in adolescents and young adults. Learn more about our leading HCM program.
- Arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM): This type of cardiomyopathy causes your heart muscle to change into fatty and scar tissue. ACM can lead to an arrhythmia (irregular heart rhythm), heart failure and sudden cardiac death.
- Restrictive cardiomyopathy: With restrictive cardiomyopathy, your heart’s ventricles become rigid and cannot relax between beats. This condition can cause arrhythmias and heart failure.
Structural heart and valve procedures
Open-heart surgery used to be the only surgical option available to treat structural heart disease and heart valve conditions. But today, minimally invasive, catheter-based (interventional) alternatives can repair or replace damaged heart valves and structural conditions in a less invasive way. Our team is highly experienced in interventional procedures to treat structural heart and valve disease, including:
- Atrial septal defect (ASD) repair: ASD is a hole in the wall that separates the heart’s upper chambers. We repair ASDs by guiding a catheter through a blood vessel and placing a piece of mesh over the hole.
- Transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR): Our interventional cardiologists use catheter-based treatments to treat mitral valve regurgitation (leaking), helping your heart valve close more completely.
- Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR): TAVR, or transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), is a procedure to treat aortic valve stenosis or regurgitation. Our interventional cardiologists and cardiac surgeons use this minimally invasive procedure to replace a diseased valve with an artificial valve without major surgery.
- Transcatheter tricuspid valve repair: Tricuspid regurgitation occurs when your tricuspid valve leaks because it doesn’t close properly. Our interventional cardiologists insert a clip that holds the valve leaflets together, reducing the need for open-heart surgery.
- Left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO): This minimally invasive procedure closes the heart's left atrial appendage (a small pouch where blood clots commonly form), significantly lowering the risk of AFib-related stroke. This procedure can be ideal for patients with long-term AFib who cannot take blood thinners.
- Patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure: A PFO is a hole in your heart that usually closes up during childhood. If the PFO remains open, it can increase your risk of stroke. We use advanced catheter-based techniques to insert a tiny plug in the PFO and restore normal heart function.
Contact us
Contact us to learn more about structural heart and valve care or to schedule an appointment.