Mitral valve repair for degenerative mitral valve regurgitation.

In industrialized countries, the most common etiology of mitral regurgitation (MR) is degenerative mitral valve (MV) disease. The natural history of severe degenerative MR is poor. However, its appropriate and timely correction is associated with a life expectancy similar to that of the normal population.

Prolapse of the posterior leaflet: resect or respect.

Prolapse of the posterior leaflet (PPL) is the most frequent dysfunction of the mitral valve in the western world. Quadrangular resection, first proposed by Alain Carpentier, has progressed to become the gold standard modality to repair posterior leaflet prolapse. Although this "resection technique" is safe, reproducible, and offers favorable long term results, it presents major drawbacks.

Totally endoscopic set-up for mitral valve repair.

Minimally invasive mitral surgery is increasingly recognized as routine. We describe here the financially economical set-up for totally endoscopic surgery, which also represents currently the smallest surgical access, limited only by prosthesis and retractor size. This allows the full range of repairs to be performed.

Rate of repair in minimally invasive mitral valve surgery.

Background: Valve repair has been shown to be the method of choice in the treatment of patients with severe mitral valve regurgitation. Minimally invasive surgery has raised skepticism regarding the rate of repair especially for supposedly complex lesions, when anterior leaflet involvement or bileaflet prolapse is present. We sought to review our experience of all our patients presenting with degenerative mitral valve regurgitation and operated on minimally invasively.

Mitral valve reconstruction in a patient with Libman-Sacks endocarditis: a case report.

A symptomatic young woman with newly diagnosed systemic lupus erythematosus and secondary antiphospholipid syndrome with elevated anticardiolipin antibodies presented with small nodules on both leaflets of the mitral valve and with a consecutive high-grade mitral regurgitation, as diagnosed by echocardiography. In consideration of the preoperative and intraoperative findings, and the patient's low age, a mitral valve repair with removal of the leaflet vegetations and a ring annuloplasty were performed.

Toward a new paradigm for the reconstruction of posterior leaflet prolapse: midterm results of the "respect rather than resect" approach.

Background: The aim of mitral valve reconstruction is restoration of good coaptation surface. Resection of the prolapsed area has been the accepted technique to repair prolapse of the posterior leaflet (PPL). However, as leaflet tissue is the basic component of coaptation surface, the logical corrective approach was thought to be the transformation of the posterior leaflet into a smooth vertical buttress without resection, the "respect rather than resect" approach.