What procedure involves widening a narrowed heart valve?

The procedure that involves widening a narrowed heart valve is commissurotomy. This surgical technique is specifically used to treat conditions such as mitral stenosis, where the valve becomes narrowed, impeding blood flow from the heart to the rest of the body. By undertaking commissurotomy, surgeons access the valve and cut away the membranes or other structures that restrict its mobility, thereby increasing the opening and allowing for improved blood flow.

Other options, like angioplasty, primarily refer to the widening of narrowed blood vessels—such as coronary arteries—rather than heart valves directly. Bypass surgery is a more extensive surgical intervention aimed at rerouting blood around blocked arteries rather than addressing valve narrowing. Stent placement involves using a mesh tube to keep a blood vessel open but does not apply to the treatment of valve stenosis. Therefore, commissurotomy is the precise and specific procedure for widening narrowed heart valves.