Update on mitral valve surgery

Abstract

Recently, the outcome for patients with mitral valve disease has significantly improved. This may be due to concomitant advances in many fields. In particular, the development of surgical techniques has contributed to this improvement, and many surgical techniques and topics are introduced in this article. After the evaluation of results in mitral valve surgery and exploration of the relationship between the mitral valve and the mitral subvalvular apparatus, it is currently accepted that mitral valve repair is superior to replacement and that replacement with preservation of the mitral subvalvular apparatus is preferable to replacement alone. Another current topic is mitral repair in dilated cardiomyopathy. Mitral regurgitation is a known complication of end-stage cardiomyopathy and is associated with a poor prognosis because of progressive mitral annular dilatation. Recently, to solve this problem, undersized mitral annuloplasty or cardiomyoplasty has been advocated. In the future, mitral valve surgery may be performed off-pump or by a percutaneous approach. Several groups are investigating the use of new devices and new techniques that avoid cardiopulmonary bypass in experimental studies. In this article, we review current topics and discuss our experiences in mitral valve surgery.