Heart valve disease can be treated surgically by their either repair or replacement by mechanical or tissue valves. Repair is feasible only in absence of valvar stenosis and most commonly is being performed in atrioventricular valves.
All types of valve substitutes (mechanical or tissue valves, allografts, autografts) pose specific low, but long-term risks. Currently, valve surgery carries low operative risk and trends towards miniinvasive and transcathetral implantation techniques.