All patients undergoing heart surgery experience a certain amount of nonspecific myocardial injury documented by the release of cardiac biomarkers and associated with poor outcome. We investigated the role of unipolar radiofrequency ablation of atrial fibrillation on the release of cardiac biomarkers in 71 patients undergoing mitral valve surgery and concomitant left atrial ablation case-matche...

During the period 1970-81, 183 patients underwent mitral valve surgery for chordal rupture. Of these, 82 (45%) patients were treated by mitral valve repair and 101 (55%) by mitral valve replacement. Mean age at surgery was 57 years. The early mortality was nine of 183 (4.9%) patients, of whom five had undergone replacement and four repair. During the follow up period (mean 3.6 years, range 0.8-...

BaIlon mitral valvuloplasty and closed mitral valve conunissurotomy were performed in 450 and 127 patients, respectively. Also, 254 patients with severe mitral stenosis were enrolled in a prospective randomized trial comparing the two procedures. Immediately after balloon mitral valvuloplasty, mean left atrial pressure was 11.38±3.54 mmHg, transmitral valve gradient was 1.8±2 mmHg, and mit...

Traditionally, cardiac surgery has been performed by median sternotomy. However, a renaissance is occurring. Cardiac operations are being performed through smaller and alternative incisions with enhanced technological assistance. Both coronary artery bypass grafting and valve surgery can be accomplished with this novel methodology. Specifically, minimally invasive mitral valve surgery has becom...

surgery and to enhance our understanding of the pathophysiology of mitral stenosis. Although surgery produced a significant increase in calculated mitral valve area, the degree of improvement varied markedly. The younger patients had the greater increase in mitral valve area. The change in cardiac index and pulmonary vascular resistance correlated well with the change in mitral valve area. Only...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this paper is to describe the feasibility of a novel transcatheter approach for mitral valve replacement using only venous access. BACKGROUND Failure of mitral valve prostheses necessitating reoperation can represent a high-risk clinical scenario. Although repeat cardiac surgery remains the standard of care for most failed mitral valve operations, nascent transcatheter o...

Use of transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR) using aortic valves in clinical practice is limited to patients with failing bioprostheses and rings or disease associated severe annulus calcification. Whereas the use valve-in-valve TMVR appears be a reasonable alternative surgery at high surgical risk, much less evidence supports valve-in-ring valve-in-mitral calcification interventions. D...

Certain subsets of high-risk mitral valve patients are not suitable candidates for transcatheter therapies. The objective of this report is to present a young patient with combined mitral valve and coronary artery disease to illustrate these challenges.In this report, we present a 47-year-old man with longstanding HIV infection who was referred with severe mitral regurgitation (MR) and profound...

INTRODUCTION Right ventricular (RV) remodelling may be an important determinant of clinical outcome in patients undergoing mitral valve surgery for mitral regurgitation. In the present study we hypothesised that, compared to valve replacement, mitral valve repair for degenerative mitral regurgitation may result in better RV remodelling, as assessed by real-time, three-dimensional echocardiograp...

Introduction: Prosthetic valve thrombosis is a rare and severe complication of valve replacement, most often encountered with a mechanical prosthesis. The significant morbidity and mortality associated with this condition warrant rapid diagnostic evaluation. Although surgery is the first-line therapy in symptomatic obstructive mechanical valve thrombosis, thrombolytic therapy has been used as a...