In patients suffering with chronic valvular disease who are diagnosed as having mitral stenosis, there are found a few who have an associated tricuspid stenosis. The diagnosis of this combination of lesions is difficult. The unique opportunity to study the hemodynamics of "pure" tricuspid stenosis was presented when a patient, originally diagnosed as mitral stenosis, had in fact both lesions, a...

Percutaneous mitral valve therapy became a reality more than 25 years ago with the first description of balloon valvuloplasty for rheumatic mitral stenosis.1 More recently, percutaneous closure of paravalvular leaks after surgical valve implantation has been shown to have a potential, but limited, role.2–4 However, valvular mitral regurgitation (MR) remains largely the purview of surgery. Recen...

BACKGROUND Mitral valve (MV) repair is the gold standard for the treatment of degenerative MV regurgitation. Recently, minimally invasive mitral valve surgery (MIMVS) has shown excellent postoperative outcomes compared with conventional surgery. The aim of our study is to report early and long-term outcomes of patients undergoing MIMVS through right mini-thoracotomy (RT) over an eight year peri...

OBJECTIVE We evaluated the outcomes of minimally invasive mitral valve surgery via a right anterior thoracotomy approach in patients with isolated severe mitral regurgitation and severely reduced left ventricular systolic function. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed all minimally invasive mitral valve surgeries for mitral regurgitation in patients with an ejection fraction of 35% or less per...

BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE STUDY A new mitral valve repair concept to treat mitral regurgitation (MR) due to valve prolapse was recently proposed. In this study, an improved design of this concept is presented, and the results of preliminary hemodynamic studies conducted in an in-vitro prolapse model are reported. METHODS The new repair approach is based on using a web/net attached to a standa...

We report the case of a patient with situs inversus totalis, annuloaortic ectasia complicated by aortic insufficiency and mitral regurgitation which induced congestive heart failure. Both valvular lesions were repaired physiologically using aortic root sparing Yacoub 'remodeling' technique and mitral ring annuloplasty. Valve sparing techniques can be used effectively even in patients with compl...

Acute unilateral pulmonary edema is an unusual clinical condition occasionally associated with severe mitral valve insufficiency. We describe a patient diagnosed as having unilateral pulmonary edema after an acute anterior myocardial infarction. Echocardiograms performed in the acute phase ruled out mitral insufficiency. A perfusion lung scan showed left-sided pulmonary hypoperfusion. The diagn...

The MitraClip NT™ system for the treatment of severe mitral valve regurgitation is effective and safe - even for patients suffering from cardiogenic shock. The use of an intra-aortic balloon pump expands the range of possible applications to this particular group of challenging patients.