a procedureHeart valve replacement

also: valve replacement · aortic valve replacement · mitral valve replacement · AVR · MVR

Surgeons name the valve and the material — mechanical or tissue. Package pages say valve replacement or repair, price the two as one line, and leave the valve itself to the fine print.

A diseased valve — most often the aortic or the mitral — is cut out and a mechanical or tissue prosthesis is sewn in its place, on cardiopulmonary bypass through an opened chest, or through a smaller incision with an endoscope. Eight nights on the Bangkok packages read for this record, seven for the endoscopic version. The choice of prosthesis decides what happens for the rest of the patient's life: a mechanical valve means warfarin and monthly blood tests, a tissue valve means a second operation in ten to twenty years.

How long it takes

The numbers behind this

	Days
In hospital	8.0
Before a flight	10
Back to ordinary use	84

Root. valve: Latin valva, a leaf of a folding door, which is what a heart valve is. Prosthesis is Greek prosthesis, an addition. Bioprosthesis names a valve built from animal tissue, usually pig or bovine pericardium; mechanical names one built from pyrolytic carbon, which lasts longer and commits the patient to lifelong anticoagulation.
Replacement and repair are different operations sold on one line of most package pages. A repaired valve is the patient's own; a replaced one is a purchased device with its own price and its own lifespan. Trade practice

The story Cited · bangkokhospital-heart-packages

Bangkok Heart Hospital prices valve work the way it prices bypass: by level, with the nights inside. Valve replacement or repair at Level 1 is 966,000 baht for eight nights; Level 2 is 1,196,000 for the same eight; totally 3D endoscopic valve replacement or repair is 1,400,000 against a struck-through 1,610,500, for seven. Prices stated valid until 31 October 2026.

The same exclusion list governs all three, and it contains the same five words as the stent package: "special device used during procedure". A prosthetic valve is a manufactured device. So the published price of a valve replacement covers the theatre, the team, the intensive care unit and the stated nights, and the valve is quoted separately.

Inference — that is the same shape as the knee package that excludes the implant and the stent package that excludes the stent, and it recurs across three unrelated specialties on hospital pages written for foreign patients. The pattern is not deception; it is what happens when a hospital fixes a price for its own work and passes a manufacturer's price straight through. It does mean the headline figure for an implant operation is never the bill.

The state comparison prices the surgeon alone. The Australian schedule sets item 38484 — aortic or pulmonary valve replacement with bioprosthesis or mechanical prosthesis — at $2,429.60, and item 38499, the mitral or tricuspid equivalent, at the same figure. The valve, the pump, the ward and the anaesthetist are elsewhere.

How it works Trade practice

Sternotomy or a small right-sided incision, cardiopulmonary bypass, the heart stopped, the diseased valve excised, the prosthesis sutured into the annulus, the heart restarted, the chest closed. A day or two in intensive care and the rest of the stay on the ward. Anticoagulation is started before discharge and, for a mechanical valve, never stopped.

For a patient who travelled, the anticoagulation is the part no package covers: monitoring a warfarin dose needs a laboratory and a clinician within reach, weekly at first, and every package read for this record ends at the airport.

Today Cited

As of 17 September 2026 the published Thai package prices for valve replacement or repair are 966,000 and 1,196,000 baht for eight nights and 1,400,000 baht for seven by endoscope, with the prosthesis excluded as a special device. Ireland's own admitted-patient price for a valve intervention with pump runs EUR 40,253 to EUR 80,201 by complexity. The Australian schedule fee for the surgeon's service is $2,429.60.

Notes

This page describes an operation and the prices published for it. It is not medical advice.

What it costs where anyone publishes a price

a provider's package pricea state tariff or what a payer refundsa list price, an estimate or an advertised rangelogarithmic scale, US$

4 published prices for this procedure, across 3 countries.

The 4 prices behind this chart

Dollar figures are the published price put through one dated rate table; the published currency and date are in the next columns.

Country	Kind	US$	As published	Dated	Source
Australia	tariff	1,732	2,430 AUD	2026-09-17	page
Thailand	package	29,014	966,000 THB	2026-09-17	page
Thailand	package	42,049	1,400,000 THB	2026-09-17	page
Ireland	tariff	46,443	40,253 EUR	2026-09-17	page

Every price this directory has read, for every procedure, sits together on the prices page.

Published prices Cited

Each is a number read off a page on the date named, in the currency the provider bills in. Dollars are that number through one dated rate table.

2,430 AUD ≈ US$1,732

tariff · Australia · Australia · for Heart valve replacement

Includes.

item 38484: aortic or pulmonary valve replacement with bioprosthesis or mechanical prosthesis, including retrograde cardioplegia if performed

Excludes.

the prosthesis
the hospital, the theatre, the pump, the anaesthetist and the intensive care

Published price dated 2026-09-17 · dollars at the rate of Wed, 16 Sep 2026 · the page it was read from · the Medicare Benefits Schedule fee, 75% benefit $1,822.20, read on 17 September 2026. Item 38499, mitral or tricuspid replacement, carries the same fee — the schedule prices the operation by the work, not by which valve.

966,000 THB ≈ US$29,014

package · Bangkok Hospital · for Heart valve replacement

Includes.

valve replacement or repair, Level 1
operating room and recovery room
specified medical supplies and medications used during the procedure
surgeon team and anaesthesiologist fees
intermediate critical care unit and critical care unit
standard inpatient room for the stated 8 nights
hospital fee, meals and related equipment during the stay

Excludes.

special device used during the procedure — which is what a prosthetic valve is
pre-assessment and medical clearance
other specialists' consultations
expense arising from underlying conditions
extra nights in critical care or on the ward
home medications, including the anticoagulant a mechanical valve commits the patient to

Published price dated 2026-09-17 · dollars at the rate of Wed, 16 Sep 2026 · the page it was read from · Level 2 of the same package is 1,196,000 THB for the same 8 nights; the levels are not defined on the page. Prices stated valid until 31 October 2026. Replacement and repair are priced on one line, though only one of them buys a device.

1,400,000 THB ≈ US$42,049

package · Bangkok Hospital · for Heart valve replacement

Includes.

totally 3D endoscopic valve replacement or repair
7 nights in hospital
theatre, surgical team and anaesthesiologist as specified

Excludes.

special device used during the procedure
pre-assessment
other specialists
extra nights
home medications

Published price dated 2026-09-17 · dollars at the rate of Wed, 16 Sep 2026 · the page it was read from · listed at 1,400,000 THB against a struck-through 1,610,500 THB, marked New, 7 nights. The endoscopic route costs more than the open one and keeps the patient a night less.

40,253 EUR ≈ US$46,443

tariff · Ireland · Ireland · for Heart valve replacement

Includes.

DRG F04C CRD VLV INTERVTN+PMP-INV INVES, MINC — cardiac valve intervention with pump, without invasive cardiac investigation, at minor complexity, as an inlier inpatient episode

Excludes.

stays beyond the high boundary, paid per diem on top
travel and accommodation

Published price dated 2026-09-17 · dollars at the rate of Wed, 16 Sep 2026 · the page it was read from · the same group runs EUR 50,628 at intermediate complexity and EUR 80,201 at major; where the admission also includes invasive cardiac investigation the group is F03, at EUR 52,054 and EUR 70,953. One operation, six prices, sorted by how sick the patient is — the opposite of the Thai page's two undefined levels.

The particulars

family	cardiac
setting	inpatient
anaesthesia	general
region	Everywhere
stay days	8
days before flying	10
recovery weeks	12
about those numbers	Eight nights is the stay named in the Bangkok Heart Hospital valve packages read for this record, seven for the endoscopic version; those are the packages' figures, not a clinical standard. The ten-day figure is the CDC's guidance not to fly for ten days after chest surgery. Twelve weeks is the span usually quoted for return to ordinary activity. No registry read for this record publishes valve outcomes for the hospitals named here, so mortality stays empty. (2026-09-17) · source
links	Bangkok Heart Hospital — cardiovascular surgery packages · MBS item 38484
confidence	medium · needs verification · updated 2026-09-17

Not to be confused with

Coronary artery bypass grafting — Bypass reroutes blood around blocked arteries; valve surgery replaces a door inside the heart. The two are sold on the same package page and are not alternatives to each other.

What it connects to

a procedureCoronary artery bypass graftingThe other open-heart operation, priced above this one on the same Bangkok list.and of this page it says: The other open-heart operation, priced below this one on the same Bangkok list.a procedureCoronary angioplasty and stentThe catheter procedure whose package carries the same five-word device exclusion.and of this page it says: The other cardiac package on the same Thai list, sold by level and by nights.a procedureTotal knee replacementThe other implant operation whose package price excludes the implant.a hospitalBangkok HospitalPublishes the valve packages this page reads, prosthesis excluded.a countryThailandWhere valve surgery is sold by level, by nights, and without the valve.a countryAustraliaWhere the schedule prices the surgeon's service at a fixed fee whichever valve it is.a riskThe implant is excludedThe line item this operation's headline price leaves out.a riskThe follow-up gapWho monitors the anticoagulation a mechanical valve requires, weekly, at home.a riskRevision at homeWho replaces a tissue valve in fifteen years, and where.a riskFlying after surgeryThe rule that keeps a chest-surgery patient on the ground.a stepReading the exclusionsThe step at which special device turns out to mean the valve.a wordPackage priceThe pricing form this operation is sold in, and the reason its exclusions matter.

Pages that point here

a cluster · on this pageBengaluruThe other half of the cardiac list this city is known for.a risk · on this pageBlood supply safetyOpen-chest surgery, with the same transfusion exposure.

Sources

Coronary artery angiography / percutaneous coronary intervention and Cardiovascular Surgery — package list — Bangkok Heart Hospital, Bangkok Hospital · link (read 2026-09-17)
MBS item 38484 — aortic or pulmonary valve replacement with bioprosthesis or mechanical prosthesis — Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing · link (read 2026-09-17)
Medical Tourism — CDC Yellow Book: Health Information for International Travel — US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention · link (read 2026-09-16)
ABF 2024 Admitted Patient Price List — Inpatient Only — Health Service Executive (Ireland) · link (read 2026-09-17)

Where it came from: Cited a source named here · Harvested pulled from an open dataset · Trade practice how the trade works, hedged · Inference this project's own reasoning · Field somebody stood there. This record as JSON.

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