Technique for repair and replacement of the mitral valve

Whenever possible, the patient's own mitral valve mechanism should be preserved. Successful mitral valve repair offers excellent benefits in terms of hemodynamic function, clinical improvement, and longevity. Open mitral commissurotomy or valvuloplasty for localized defects or ruptured chordae tendineae constitutes our best reparative efforts. Today, mitral valve replacement can be accomplished with less than a 5 per cent operative mortality, but should be reserved for patients who are not in desperate terminal condition. In our experience, aggressive tactics undertaken at the endstage of the disease have had little or no long-term success. At the Cleveland Clinic, isolated mitral valve repair or replacement is performed under normothermic cardiopulmonary bypass and anoxic arrest. Generally, the valve is exposed through an atriotomy behind the interatrial groove. Valvular replacement is accomplished by interrupted suture technique, seating the prosthesis at the level of the annulus or below it. Risk is influenced mainly by the chronicity of the valve dysfunction. Patients who have not yet reached a Functional Class IV status or sustained massive cardiomegaly and low cardiac output fare better in both early and late follow-up periods.