Listen to your heart because you may have a valve problem - but new surgical option brings help

FOX 2 - We've all heard about valves maybe when it comes to your water pipes - but how about your heart?

Think of a valve about an inch in diameter, a valve the size of a paper clip. But like any valve you have in your home  - when it doesn't work - things can go very wrong.

Dig deeper:

"Many people understand a water pump, pumping a pool or water out of a big hole in the ground. You can imagine if a pump is pumping water backwards, then the water doesn't move from one place to another," said Dr. Rakesh Suri. "The heart is really a pump. And therefore, if the pump is not doing its job and pulling blood forward into the brain, arms, and legs - it goes backwards into the lungs."

What causes the pump to malfunction? It could be a bad valve - specifically, the mitral valve which you find between the upper and lower left chamber.

If the flaps malfunction and blood flows backwards - the impact can be no big deal, or pretty major.

"A suffocating feeling known as heart failure, it also causes atrial fibrillation, which is a short-circuiting of the heart rhythm," the doctor said. "And the third thing, sadly, many 'healthy people' can die of this condition. They are waiting for symptoms, and they don't have high quality repair, and the message that everyone needs to know, is you can die from this condition."

Dr Suri, from Corewell Health, explains that doctors have been repairing these valves for decades, but now there are improved robotic repairs.

"And then we're able to sleep between the ribs," he said. "So no bone cutting, no muscle splitting, no rib spreading, the instruments slip between the ribs. Patients have the breathing tube removed on the operating room table, they go to the Intensive Care Unit, and they are walking around the night of surgery.

"Importantly, patients get back to work the week after surgery. Unlike anything was seen in 30 years after heart surgery - it's really revolutionary."

It's estimated 3 to 5 percent of Americans have a mitral valve - and diagnosis starts with a simple stethoscope. 

"It's really important that we don't ignore a heart murmur," Dr. Suri said. "If you have a heart murmur, it's really important to see a cardiologist and get an echocardiogram and then the multi-disciplinary team can get you the right therapy."