BALLOON MITRAL VALVOTOMY

Balloon Mitral Valvuloplasty is  a minimally invasive  procedure that widens the opening of narrowed  mitral valve (valve means a flaps of tissue that control the unidirectional flow of blood in the heart and heart has four valves , mitral is the left sided valve between upper and lower chamber of heart) so that blood flows more easily through the heart. A doctor uses a thin flexible tube (catheter) that is inserted through an artery in the groin or arm and threaded into the heart. When the tube reaches the narrowed mitral valve, a balloon device located on the tip of the catheter is quickly inflated. The narrowed or fused mitral valve leaflets are separated and stretched open as the balloon presses against them. This process increases the size of the mitral valve opening and allows more blood to flow from the left atrium into the left ventricle.

Indicated in Symptomatic Mitral Stenosis : Mitral stenosis leads to breathless on exertion initially , fatigue and as the disease progress it leads to high blood pressure in lungs also known as pulmonary hypertension and as the upper left chamber of heart dilates predispose to atrial fibrillation. There can be blood clot formation in heart and if it dislodges and migrate to other blood vessels as heart supplies blood to whole body via means of channels called blood vessels . These clots may block the blood supply to any organ and can lead to stroke if brain arteries are involved or gangrene if peripheral blood vessel is involved supplying limbs. 

If there are  blood clots in the left atrium, severe  calcified mitral valve, or moderate to severe mitral valve leakage then you will require surgical valve replacement.