Does rheumatic heart disease require surgery?
Patients with rheumatic heart disease primarily have involvement of valvular lesions, with the most common being accumulation in the mitral valve, leading to mitral stenosis. In the early stage of the disease, mitral stenosis often has no clinical symptoms and can only be detected through physical examinations, such as auscultation, which may reveal mitral valve murmurs. For patients with asymptomatic rheumatic heart disease, conservative treatment is primarily advised, which includes rest and reducing cardiac load to avoid surgery. Additionally, for severe rheumatic heart disease, mitral stenosis can be very serious, affecting the patient's cardiac function and causing symptoms such as chest tightness and fatigue after activity, and even paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea and inability to lie flat at night. In such cases, surgical treatment is required, such as mitral valvuloplasty or prosthetic valve replacement surgery. Thus, surgery is necessary in the late stages of rheumatic heart disease.