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What Is Life Expectancy After Heart Valve Surgery?

Written By: Adam Pick, Patient Advocate, Author & Website Founder
Page Last Updated: July 16, 2025

I'm on day three of my work trip through Japan. The jet lag is still overwhelming considering I live in Los Angeles. That said, I've had a few early morning hours to dig through my inbox and answer patient questions. I just received an interesting question about life expectancy after heart surgery. It reads, "Hi Adam: Thanks so much for your website! Do you know what the life expectancy is for patients after heart valve surgery?"

That is a great question. Unfortunately, it is a very tough question to answer. I say that because heart valve surgery is a relatively new area of medicine. Cardiac surgery, bypass operations and heart valve therapies have only really been around for fifty years or so. For this reason, researchers are still developing their datasets as they track the lives of heart valve surgery patients. In addition, there are different types of heart valve surgery including valve repairs and replacement. Plus, patients have different health conditions and/or co-morbidities when they undergo heart valve surgery.

Dr. Chikwe Addresses Life Expectancy After Heart Valve Surgery

That said, I really wanted to provide an answer to this very important question. For that reason, I was fortunate to interview Dr. Joanna Chikwe, who is the Chair of Cardiac Surgery at Cedars-Sinai about this topic. Here are the highlights of my discussion with Dr. Chikwe about life expectancy after heart valve surgery.

So you know... Last week, I received a very nice email from a patient who had her valve replaced 34 years ago. Yep. You read that right. 34 years!!! And, I recently connected with a patient who had her first heart valve operation 50 years ago!!! I hope this helps you better understand life expectancy after heart valve surgery.

Written by Adam Pick - Patient & Website Founder

Adam Pick is a heart valve patient and author of The Patient's Guide To Heart Valve Surgery. In 2006, Adam founded HeartValveSurgery.com to educate and empower patients. This award-winning website has helped over 10 million people fight heart valve disease. Adam has been featured by the American Heart Association and Medical News Today.

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