The specific course of treatment depends upon the nature and severity of the valve disease. Some conditions, such as mitral prolapse valve with mild mitral regurgitation, often require little treatment except for taking antibiotics before dental, medical or surgical procedures. More severe valve abnormalities may require cardiac medications and/or valve surgery. Regardless of the nature and severity of the valve defect, early detection and diagnosis can increase a patient’s chances of avoiding significant and sometimes irreversible damage.

Drugs will not cure the underlying disease, but they can minimize symptoms, ease the heart’s workload, and regulate the heart’s rhythm to prevent arrhythmias and delay the need for surgery. Medications include:

Surgeries include:

• Heart valve repair or replacement. Using a valve transplant made of artificial materials (e.g., plastics, carbon, metal alloys) or organic tissue (from pig or cow), defective valves are replaced with healthy ones. This is an open-heart surgery that requires the use of a heart-lung machine. Patients who have received a mechanical valve are at an increased risk of blood clot formation and must take anticoagulants for the rest of their lives.
  
  
• Certain minimally invasive heart valve surgeries. Researchers are working to develop a catheter-based valve replacement surgery.
  
  
• Valvuloplasty. A procedure in which a ring-like device is attached to the supporting structures of the valve as the valve’s (usually the mitral valve) leaflets or “flaps” are re-molded to prevent leakage.
  
  
• Other surgical repair of valve(s). These surgeries include the Ross Procedure in which the patient's pulmonic valve is moved to the aortic valve position, with the pulmonic valve being replaced with a pig valve.