What is Rheumatic Heart Disease?
Rheumatic heart disease is thought to be caused by an immune response to a previous bout of rheumatic fever in childhood. Many patients do not even recall having had the childhood illness. Rheumatic valve disease characteristically creates thickening and calcification of the mitral valve and less commonly the aortic valve. Some rheumatic mitral valves have difficulty opening (stenosis) or closing properly (regurgitation). In general, rheumatic valves are more difficult to repair surgically and may need to undergo valve replacement surgery.
