Valvular Heart Disease

308 As technology advances resulted in more effective percutaneous approaches to the treatment of valvular stenosis, the terminology used to describe these procedures evolved as well. The term “commissurotomy” originated from the surgical procedure developed for commissural mitral valve stenosis (see chapter 34), and some thought valvuloplasty should be reserved for surgical procedures that more directly altered the valvular structure. As an initial compromise, the NHLBI registry suggested that the term “valvotomy” be used for aortic and pulmonic procedures and commissurotomy for mitral procedures. These terms are often used in the older literature. In recent years, “valvuloplasty” has become the term of choice to describe procedures in which stenotic valves are opened by balloon dilatation. This term, analogous to balloon angioplasty, is established in the cardiology community and is used in this chapter.