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Abstract

The COVID-19 crisis has surged worldwide putting immense stress on the health care services, leading to institutions deferring elective procedures and struggling to triage the emergency care of the cardiac patient. This has affected the management of the rheumatic valvular heart disease patient especially, in developing countries, potentially placing these patients at enormous risk for complications like congestive cardiac failure, stroke and death. In this article, we explore the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on rheumatic valvular heart disease patient care. We try to provide a framework that addresses the procedural considerations of interventions like percutaneous transluminal mitral commissurotomy (PTMC), mitral and aortic valve surgeries. This article also highlights the implications for the outpatient valve clinic, and safety issues of the patient and health care workers during this on-going pandemic.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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