One of the most common, congenital heart valve disorders is a [1] regurgitation).

Earlier today, I received an email from Nikki. I perked up in my chair as I read her email about a unicuspid aortic heart valve.

Nikki writes to me, “Hi Adam - I am trying to find out more about my 2-year old heart’s condition when I came across your site. He has been diagnosed to have a unicuspid aortic heart valve. At what age will this start to effect him? Do you have any additional info on this? Greetings from Cape Town, South Africa! Nikki (Mom)”

You can see what a unicuspid aortic valve looks like in the pictures above. Notice that there is a single cusp which has been severed at the top of the valve. Both of these removed valves were [2] severely calcified.

Unicuspid heart valves are very, very, very rare. In my research, I did not locate any clinical datasets which tracked the disorder and its impact upon patients (by age, by sex, etc.). However, I did find a few, surgical case studies of [3] aortic valve replacement patients at 26 and 52 years of life. That said, it appears that this disorder can trigger heart valve disease at different times in the patient’s life.

I hope this helps explain more about unicuspid aortic valves.

Keep on tickin!

About The Author: Adam Pick is a double, heart valve surgery patient and author of The Patient’s Guide To Heart Valve Surgery, a unique book which integrates the clinical facts of heart valve surgery with the personal experiences of 78 former valve surgery patients. [4] To learn more about Adam and his heart valve surgery book, click here.