Double heart valve replacement is a rarer yet crucial surgery performed to replace both the mitral (valve to the left ventricle) and the aortic valve (conduit that opens to the aorta). Double heart valve replacement surgical procedure can be either open-heart (surgeon opens up the chest to replace damaged valves) or minimally invasive (small incision around breastbone or under right chest muscle) in nature.
The replacing valves can come from the patient own tissue (an autograft). During operation blood flow to the heart is blocked (beating is temporarily stopped) and the patient is put on CPB (cardiopulmonary bypass) machine which circulates and maintain the blood in heart and lung. After confirmation from surgeon (valves are working properly) the blood flow to heart is restored and the patient is weaned from the CPB machine.