Aortic valve replacement is a type of open-heart surgery and is used to treat problems with the heart's aortic valve. The heart has four chambers. There are two small chambers on top(atria) and two large at the bottom(Ventricles). And each ventricles has two valve, one valve control blood flowing into the ventricle and other valve control blood flowing out of the ventricle. Each valve made up of flaps which are also leaflets or cusp. These flap open and close, acting as one way gates for blood flow. The aortic valve controls the flow of blood out of the heart's ventricle to the body main artery(aorta) and from here it passes to the rest of body. The function of aortic valve is to allow blood flow from the heart to rest of the body. It then closes to stop any blood leaking back into the heart.

Aortic valve replacement needs to replace for two reasons.

1) Either the aortic valve becomes narrowed and obstructs the blood flowing through it.

2) Leaking of the valve (aortic regurgitation)

During the surgery, the surgeon cut is made on the chest to access the heart either through open heart or by minimally invasive. The heart is then stopped and heart lung bypass machine is used to take over the circulation during the operation. The aortic valve is removed or replaced with artificial valves either with mechanical or tissue valve.