How long a patient can live without heart valve surgery depends on the severity of the valve insufficiency, clinical symptoms, and the underlying disease, and cannot be generalized. If the patient has mild to moderate valve insufficiency, no obvious clinical symptoms, and no other underlying diseases, surgery is usually not necessary and will not affect life expectancy. If the patient has severe valvular insufficiency, he or she may experience panic attacks, chest tightness, breathlessness, generalized swelling, and cyanosis, which usually indicate that the patient is in the end stage of heart failure. Without surgical treatment, these patients have a poor prognosis and a low long-term survival rate, and may be at risk for acute left heart failure, malignant arrhythmias, and sudden cardiac death at any time. Therefore, patients with heart valve disease are advised to visit the cardiology department of a regular hospital in a timely manner for examination by a specialized physician to determine the cause and early symptomatic treatment.