Surgical pulmonary vein isolation by ablation as a treatment for atrial fibrillation was first performed in isolation in 1996 at Hospital de Santa Cruz in Portugal, as a complementary therapy to mitral valve surgery in patients with rheumatic mitral valve disease, in order to reduce the morbidity associated with maze surgery. This innovative surgical approach, performed by Queiroz e Melo, repla...

Reoperation is the method of choice for correcting prosthetic paravalvular leaks. The percutaneous repair of mitral paravalvular leaks might represent an interesting alternative in select cases. The present study reports two cases of mitral paravalvular leaks that were treated with AmplatzerTM Vascular Plug III guided by three-dimensional (3D) transesophageal echocardiography, using the percuta...

mitral valve replacement (mvr) is usually performed in two methods of running and interrupted suturing. in running method, the suturing of the valve is usually with some traction on the annulus and also there is a risk of aortic valve injury. this study was conducted to evaluate a new technique for suturing to avoid these complications and decrease the time of cardiac arrest. one hundred and se...

Congenital mitral valve stenosis is a rare pathology. In this study, we aimed to present our surgical approach and successful valve repair to a case with congenital mitral valve stenosis combined with left persistent superior vena cava. Conservative surgery of the congenital mitral valve stenosis can be performed with acceptable early and midterm outcome in terms of mortality and reoperation ra...

Functional ischemic mitral regurgitation is a complex disorder with a poor prognosis. Although the underlying anatomical and pathophysiological mechanisms are not entirely clear, it is known that postinfarction left ventricular remodeling is the most significant factor in the development of this mitral valve lesion. Echocardiography and magnetic resonance imaging have made significant contribut...

Background/Introduction Following surgical mitral valve replacement paravalvular leaks may occur in up to 17% of patients. A significant fraction of these patients present with a symptoms of heart failure and/or anaemia. Conventional surgical closure is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Alternative transcatheter closure has been developed and being introduced into the clinical ...

Three-dimensional echocardiography offers great promise for improving the understanding of the mitral valve anatomy, function, and pathology. It may have important implications for medical or surgical management of different mitral valve disease. In this article we provide an overview of the three-dimensional anatomy of the mitral valve. Based on the studies using three-dimensional echocardiogr...

A 62-year-old woman was referred for evaluation of recent-onset dyspnoea at rest and a newly found systolic heart murmur, heard best at the apex of the heart. The patient's history was notable for surgical mitral valve replacement 3 years ago, due to severe mitral regurgitation (myxomatous degeneration of the mitral valve). The transthoracic echocardiogram gave the impression of a mitral regurg...

Use of the surgical robot facilitates less invasive mitral valve surgery. Although multiple single center studies confirmed excellent results with robotically-assisted mitral valve surgery, both real and perceived limitations have slowed adoption of this technology. Some still question the safety and efficacy of robotically-assisted mitral valve surgery. However, present data suggests that robo...