INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Mitral valve disease often is accompanied by chronic atrial fibrillation, especially when the left atrium is enlarged. Mitral valve surgery alone cannot resolve the arrhythmia in most cases. Several surgical techniques have been proposed. We have used surgical left atrial reduction and pulmonary vein isolation to eliminate chronic atrial fibrillation associated with ...

percent had systemic emboli. Conclusions from this large series were: 1) atrial fibrillation is the main cause of systemic embolism; 2) embolism is as common with mitral regurgitation as with mitral stenosis; 3) mitral valve calcification predisposes to operative emboli; 4 ) atrial appendage size has no influence on the occurrence of systemic embolism. Review of the literature has not revealed ...

The first successful mitral valve repair was performed by Elliot Cutler at Brigham and Women's Hospital in 1923. Subsequent evolution in the surgical techniques as well as multi-disciplinary cooperation between cardiac surgeons, cardiologists and cardiac anesthesiologists has resulted in excellent outcomes. In spite of this, the etiology of mitral valve pathology ultimately determines the outco...

Background. Mitral restenosis after surgical mitral commissurotomy often occurs within 5-15 years, necessitating a repeat procedure. Balloon mitral commissurotomy (BMC) has been advocated as an alternative to repeat surgery for mitral restenosis. Methods and Results. The purposes of this study are to determine the shortand intermediate-term outcomes of patients undergoing BMC after previous sur...

BACKGROUND In the past two decades, the introduction of robotic technology has facilitated minimally invasive cardiac surgery, allowing surgeons to operate endoscopically rather than through a median sternotomy. This approach has facilitated procedures for several structural heart conditions, including mitral valve repair, atrial septal defect closure and multivessel minimally invasive coronary...

Transcatheter mitral valve therapies have emerged as an alternative option in high surgical risk or inoperable patients with severe and symptomatic mitral regurgitation (MR). As multiple technologies and different approaches will become available in the field of mitral valve interventions, different challenges are emerging, both patient- (clinical challenges) and procedure-related (technical ch...

We describe a case of 68-year-old woman which was admitted to our hospital for mitral valve replacement (MVR), in whom acute compression of the vena cava inferior developed after repair of lacerated atrio-caval junction with hemostatic tissue sealant, biologic glue (BioGlue, Cryolife, inc, Kennesaw, Ga). Removal of the BioGlue relieved the unexpected problem.

OBJECTIVE Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most formidable supraventricular tachyarrhythmia, which worsens the natural course of mitral valve disease. In this study, we evaluated early and long-term results and quality of life (QOL) after simultaneous surgical radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of AF, left atrial reduction and mitral valve repair or replacement. METHODS Overall, 147 patients with m...

Background and objective Pre-operative assessment of mitral valve (MV) anatomy is essential to surgical design in patients undergoing MV repair. Although 2-dimensional (2D) echocardiography provides precise information regarding MV anatomy, RT-3D TEE could increase the understanding of MV apparatus and individual scallop identification. We aimed to investigate the value of RT3DTEE in MV repair....

BACKGROUND Because of demographic changes, a growing number of elderly patients present with mitral valve (MV) disease. Although mitral valve repair (MV-repair) is the "gold standard" treatment for MV disease, in elderly patients, there is controversy about whether MV-repair is superior to mitral valve replacement. We reviewed results after MV surgery in elderly patients treated over the past 2...