Atrioventricular Valves

The atrioventricular valves are those that connect the atrium to the ventricles and include the mitral valve as well as the tricuspid valve.

The atrioventricular valves can be involved in multiple disease processes including mitral regurgitation, mitral stenosis, mitral valve prolapse, tricuspid regurgitation and rarely tricuspid stenosis. While the mitral valve plays a crucial role in the overall cardiac cycle and funciton, the tricuspid valve is less important. In fact tricuspid valve excision used to be performed to prevent recurrent tricuspid valve endocarditis and those patients rarely developed heart failure despite the absence of this atrioventricular valve.

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