Surely the essential feature is the presence of a significant degree of mitral stenosis -that is to say, enough to raise left atrial pressure under various conditions such as exercise, emotion, pregnancy, or tachycardia from any cause. Operation for removal of clot is not an accepted procedure apart from valvotomy. The statement that valvotomy is indicated "provided the valve is suitable for it...

1 Evanston Hospital Cardiology Division, Evanston, IL, USA. Correspondence: Ted Feldman, MD. Evanston Hospital, Cardiology Division Walgreen Building 3rd Floor 2650 Ridge Ave. Evanston, IL, USA 60201 E-mail: [email protected] Received on: 16/06/2009 • Accepted on: 16/06/2009 Gomes et al.1 report in this issue the experience over several years with second and third percutaneous mitral ball...

Pulmonary incompetence is a common sequel of pulmonary valvotomy, but many authors believe that the haemodynamic consequences of this regurgitation are well tolerated (Talbert, Morrow, Collins, and Gilbert, 1963). In this paper we report a patient who had severe pulmonary incompetence after valvotomy and who failed to maintain her initial clinical improvement. Because of the severe leak it was ...