Rheumatic heart disease is a complicated and extremely dangerous condition. People get it when they contract a bacterial infection that leads to rheumatic fever. If left untreated, rheumatic fever can damage your heart valve, typically the mitral valve, which results in rheumatic heart disease. This condition can happen to anyone, but it is especially common in areas that do not have access to basic antibiotics and medications.
While there is no cure for rheumatic heart disease, there are treatments that can prevent rheumatic fever from progressing to rheumatic heart disease. There are also surgeries available that can replace your damaged valve with new ones. Here are some of the most common treatment options for rheumatic heart disease.
Whether or not medications can treat your rheumatic heart disease will vary from person to person. In the early stages of rheumatic heart disease, medications can prevent the condition from progressing and inflicting further damage on your mitral valve. However, medications cannot reverse the damage already done to your heart valve, so it is important to act fast.
Currently, anticoagulants (blood thinners) are used in patients with rheumatic heart disease when the disease causes them to develop an abnormal heartbeat. Anticoagulants, such as apixaban and warfarin, are prescribed to reduce the potential of your disease and irregular heartbeat causing a stroke or blood clot.
Unfortunately, anticoagulants have unwanted side effects, including the following.
Because anticoagulants cannot undo the damage caused by rheumatic heart disease, it is only used in patients who develop irregular heartbeats.
In most cases, people with rheumatic heart disease will require heart valve surgery to repair or replace their damaged valve or valves.
To repair a damaged heart valve, your surgeon will insert a small balloon into the damaged valve. They will then inflate the balloon to widen the opening in the valve and increase blood flow to the heart.
When the damage to your heart valve is too severe for repair, your surgeon will have to replace the damaged valve with a new one. Your surgeon can use another valve in your body, create one from similar tissue, or install an artificial valve. Heart valve replacement surgery is risky and only used when your condition is too advanced for medications or repair.
The good thing about rheumatic heart disease is that it’s avoidable when you seek treatment for rheumatic fever. Rheumatic fever is the result of a bacterial infection, such as strep throat or scarlet fever, that is very treatable with the proper antibiotics. Penicillin, amoxicillin, and other antibiotics can cure your bacterial infection and prevent rheumatic fever from developing.
Once you contract rheumatic fever, penicillin, amoxicillin, and other antibiotics are still the best course of treatment. You may also need anti-inflammatory medications, such as naproxen or celecoxib, to reduce inflammation around the heart that results from rheumatic fever.
Because antibiotics are not readily available in all parts of South Africa, rheumatic heart disease is fairly common, especially in people under the age of 25. While rheumatic heart disease is treatable with surgery and medications, it is much easier to prevent than it is to repair. The key is to seek immediate treatment for conditions like scarlet fever and strep throat so that you do not develop rheumatic fever, which often leads to rheumatic heart disease.