Treatment
| Symptoms | Ejection fraction | Additional Findings |
|---|---|---|
| Present (NYHA II-IV) |
Any | |
| Absent | > 50% | Abnormal exercise test, severe LV dilatation (systolic ventricular diameter >55 mm) |
| Absent | <=50 % | |
| Cardiac surgery for other cause (i.e.: CAD, other valvular disease, ascending aortic aneurysm) | ||
Aortic insufficiency can be treated either medically or surgically, depending on the acuteness of presentation, the symptoms and signs associated with the disease process, and the degree of left ventricular dysfunction.
Surgical treatment is controversial in asymptomatic patients, however has been recommended if the ejection fraction falls to 50% or below, in the face of progressive and severe left ventricular dilatation, or with symptoms or abnormal response to exercise testing. For both groups of patients, surgery before the development of worsening ejection fraction/LV dilatation, is expected to reduce the risk of sudden death, and is associated with lower peri-operative mortality. Also, surgery is optimally performed immediately in acute cases.
Read more about this topic: Aortic Insufficiency
Famous quotes containing the word treatment:
“A regular council was held with the Indians, who had come in on their ponies, and speeches were made on both sides through an interpreter, quite in the described mode,—the Indians, as usual, having the advantage in point of truth and earnestness, and therefore of eloquence. The most prominent chief was named Little Crow. They were quite dissatisfied with the white man’s treatment of them, and probably have reason to be so.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Narcissist: psychoanalytic term for the person who loves himself more than his analyst; considered to be the manifestation of a dire mental disease whose successful treatment depends on the patient learning to love the analyst more and himself less.”
—Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)
“Any important disease whose causality is murky, and for which treatment is ineffectual, tends to be awash in significance.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)