Surgical treatment for chest pain in mitral valve prolapse.

The case of a 40-year-old woman with mitral valve prolapse and severe atypical chest pain is presented. The diagnosis was confirmed by phonocardiographic, echocardiographic, and angiocardiographic studies. The electrocardiogram revealed an ischemic pattern of ST-T on the anterior and inferior wall. Coronary angiographic studies showed normal coronary arteries. The patient's long-standing, prolonged, disabling atypical chest pain could not be relieved with medical therapy, despite the administration of beta-adrenergic blocking agents, calcium antagonists, and short-acting nitrites during a 30-month period. Thus, the prolapsed mitral valve was replaced with a Hancock xenograft. After 12 months the patient is totally free of symptoms, without any treatment and with a normal ECG. This excellent surgical result could be explained on the basis of the valvular theory of chest pain in mitral valve prolapse, suggesting that pain is promoted probably by a regional imbalance between oxygen availability and consumption, because of the excessive papillary muscular stretching produced by the prolapse. To our knowledge, this is the first published report of successful surgical treatment of chest pain in mitral valve prolapse.