Valvuloplasty
	Balloon Mitral valvuloplasty is a viable alternative for patients with non-calcific mitral stenosis and is equivalent to closed mitral commisurotomy (a more invasive surgical procedure. Patients with certain mitral valve characteristics are not candidates for this procedures and should undergo mitral valve replacement instead. Unlike mitral valvuloplasty, balloon aortic valvuloplaty is only indicated in patients with severe aortic stenosis who are not candidates for aortic valve replacement (due to age, co-morbid condition, …) and is only a palliative procedure or can be performed as a bridge to valve surgery in critically ill patients. Both procedures are performed percuatneouly by positioning a balloon across the valve and inflating it to dilate the valve architecture. The Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center offers both procedures and has pioneered the use of these procedures.

Mitral stenosis is a disabling and eventually lethal disease. If untreated, significant symptoms (eg, dyspnea and fatigue) and serious complications (eg, pulmonary edema, systemic arterial embolism, and pulmonary hypertension) occur. Medical therapy can relieve symptoms but do not affect the obstruction to flow. Surgical commissurotomy and open valvuloplasty were, for many years, the only methods by which mitral stenosis could be corrected, However, the development of percutaneous balloon valvuloplasty has revolutionized the treatment of this disorder and largely replaced surgery for mitral stenosis. A balloon is advanced from the venous circulation to the right atrium, across the interatrial septum to the left atrium, and across the stenotic mitral valve. Inflation and rapid deflation of the balloon opens the stenotic valve.