A 59-year-old male was referred for surgery resulting from a paravalvular leak at the mitral position. The patient underwent his first mitral valve replacement with a Bjork-Shiley valve 33 years before this situation arose. He underwent his second mitral valve replacement with a St. Jude Medical mechanical prosthesis for valve thrombosis 10 years later. Serial echocardiography had always shown ...

A report is presented of nine patients who underwent early open mitral valve surgery after arterial embolism had occurred. Five of these patients suffered an early second arterial embolism before their mitral operation, an observation which stresses the risk inherent in delay of mitral valve surgery. The demonstration of atrial thrombi in four illustrates the potential danger of closed valvotom...

OBJECTIVES Transcatheter aortic valve implantation has emerged as a valuable option to treat patients with symptomatic severe aortic stenosis, who are not being considered for surgery because of significant comorbidities. Concerns exist over treating patients who have previously undergone mitral valve surgery for possible interference between the percutaneous aortic valve and the mitral prosthe...

BACKGROUND Mitral valve repair in rheumatic disease is technically more difficult, and there is little information on the long-term stability of this technique. METHODS AND RESULTS From January 1975 to December 1990, 327 patients underwent mitral valve repair with the Duran flexible ring annuloplasty for rheumatic valve disease. Mean age was 45.4 +/- 12.6 years (range, 23 to 73 years). The te...

7. Clinical bottom line TV insufficiency should be treated during left-sided valve surgery when TR annulus is dilated (G21 mmym ;)70 mm 2 intra-operatively; G3.5 cm at trans-thoracic echocardio-graphy (TTE) w18x) regardless of the absolute grade of regurgitation, in cases of preoperative AF, trans-tricuspid PMK lead and underlying rheumatic disease. Also, 'ring' annuloplasty techniques should b...

A 65 year old man presented with bacterial endocarditis of the mitral valve. Immediately after mitral valve replacement a valve ring abscess ruptured. Early surgery should be performed when an intramyocardial abscess is suspected.

OBJECTIVES Mitral annular calcification is associated with significant morbidity and mortality at the time of mitral valve surgery. However, few data are available describing the impact of mitral annular calcification on early and late outcomes following mitral valve repair in the current era. METHODS Between 2001 and 2011, 625 patients were referred for mitral valve repair of severe mitral r...

A 69-year-old male presented with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, mitral valve regurgitation, and myxomatous mitral valve prolapse. A spontaneous chordal rupture and acute severe mitral regurgitation resulted in abrupt clinical deterioration despite complete relief of severe left ventricular outflow tract obstruction and systolic anterior motion of the anterior mitral leaflet. The pati...

Background Recent studies have shown that echocardiography and MRI are often discordant when assessing the severity of mitral regurgitation (MR), with echocardiography often overestimating severity of mitral regurgitation compared to MRI (1). This is particularly true among patients who underwent mitral valve surgery based on echocardiographic assessment and the current ACC/AHA recommendations ...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The introduction of Duke's criteria and the improvement of imaging methods has lead to an earlier and a more accurate diagnosis of infectious endocarditis (IE). The options for the best therapeutic approach and the timing of surgery are still a matter of debate and require a close colaboration between the cardiologist, the infectionist and the cardiac surgeon. METHODS We u...