Missing valve?

[sue943]

Someone on another forum site I visit, not health related, asked for people to think of her d-in-l's brother who is in his early forties, they thought he had a heart attack but then discovered that he was born with only three heart valves and no one knew until now. Has anyone ever heard of such a thing or could it have become muddled in the telling do you think? He is currently in hospital on bed rest until they fit an mechanical one. Personally I am wondering if perhaps it is a cusp missing on the aortic and not a valve missing.

 

[catwoman]

Sue:

Only 3 heart valves? Until they fit a mechanical one? Something is amiss here. Methinks someone has facts mixed up. I would think that putting in a mechanical to replace a MISSING valve would take far more work than just doing a valve replacement. Would take remodeling of the heart.

Will be interested in hearing more of the story as it unfolds.

 

[Nancy]

Quite a while back there was someone whose niece had some sort of birth defect in the Pulmonary valve, can't remember exactly what it was, but essentially, she grew up without her Pulmonary valve and did OK with some mild to medium disability. As she got older, her doctors finally fitted her with a replacement Pulmonary valve.

And we also had a member who had an apical conduit placed outside her heart with I believe, a valve in it, to bypass one of her malfunctioning valves.

If you Google "missing heart valve" there are some articles about people born with missing valves.

 

[kfay]

There are a couple of congenital heart defects in which the valve can be missing. I know there is at least one that affects the pulmonary valve and there is also tricuspid atresia, in which the tricuspid valve is missing. He could not have made it to this age with tricuspid atresia without knowing about it, but I think there are some who can go for years without a pulmonary valve. Lyn is much better versed in congenital heart conditions than I am and hopefully she will be along with some input.

 

[Lynlw]

There are a couple of congenital heart defects in which the valve can be missing. I know there is at least one that affects the pulmonary valve and there is also tricuspid atresia, in which the tricuspid valve is missing. He could not have made it to this age with tricuspid atresia without knowing about it, but I think there are some who can go for years without a pulmonary valve. Lyn is much better versed in congenital heart conditions than I am and hopefully she will be along with some input.

I think there is some kind of misunderstanding
I know there are some complex CHD like Congentively Corrected TGA that quite a few things are worng,but your heart functions well because they compensate for each other. and you can go your whole live without being DXD. and perhaps, there could be some valve missing and there be VSDs or ASDs so the blood mixes, but I personally never heard of any cases,
Its possible that it is something I don't know about, But I don't know of being able to live years just with out a valve and not knowing about it and a repair would be just adding a valve. Justin went years with out a pulmonary valve, but that was after surgery, when often in children they left out the pulmonary valve in the repair for TGA or TOF because you could live with out it and that avoids repeat surgeries as you out grow the valve. but pulmonary atresia (no pulm valve), like trucuspid atresia like the valve isn't just missing, it is usually closed shut so no blood gets thru to the pulm artery (IF you have one)or the lungs so you would have problems very early.

 

[sue943]

Apparently he is in hospital and will remain there until it is sorted, I will keep an eye open for updates.

He is being treated at the largest cardiothorasic hospital in the UK.

 

[Ross]

Tbone had, I beleive mitral externally. The one he was born with was essentially nonfunctioning.

 

[kfay]

Tbone had, I beleive mitral externally. The one he was born with was essentially nonfunctioning.

I thought of T-bone when I read this originally Ross. For some reason, I thought he had Tricuspid Atresia. My memory isn't so good these days though!!!