BACKGROUND We performed a prospective, randomized trial comparing percutaneous balloon commissurotomy with surgical closed commissurotomy in 40 patients with severe rheumatic mitral stenosis. METHODS AND RESULTS Data were analyzed by investigators who were masked to treatment assignment or phase of study. Patients randomized to balloon (n = 20) or surgical (n = 20) commissurotomy had severe m...

T ranscatheter MitraClip (Abbott Vascular, Santa Clara, California) implantation has emerged as the single catheter-based technique for mitral valve repair with global adoption. Worldwide, an estimated 25,000 patients have been treated with the MitraClip so far. Typically, the incidence of major stroke after surgical mitral valve repair or replacement is similar to what is seen after surgical a...

Mitral regurgitation may develop when the leaflets or any other portion of the apparatus becomes abnormal. As the repair techniques for mitral valve disease evolved, so has the need for detailed and accurate imaging of the mitral valve prior to surgery in order to better define the mechanism of valve dysfunction and the severity of regurgitation. In patients with significant mitral valve diseas...

In the United States alone, about 250,000 people develop significant mitral regurgitation (MR) each year, with almost 50,000 undergoing surgery. Surgical repair of a diseased mitral valve has become the treatment of choice for patients with significant MR. Since there is no single therapeutic approach for every etiology of MR, surgical mitral valve repair includes a variety of techniques that a...

BACKGROUND In patients undergoing cardiac surgery, a reduced preoperative left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is common and is associated with a worse outcome. Available outcome data for these patients address specific surgical procedures, mainly coronary artery bypass graft (CABG). Aim of our study was to investigate perioperative outcome of surgery on patients with low pre-operative LVE...

T he rationale for the development of a transcatheter mitral valve implantation (tMVI) procedure, either percutaneous or via minimally invasive surgery (MIS), arose from consideration of several key surgical concepts. First, mitral valve replacement is the most effective modality and the gold standard procedure for reliably reducing mitral regurgitation (MR). The efficacy and risks of mitral va...

BACKGROUND Adequate exposure of the mitral valve is a critical factor of success for either replacement or repair of the mitral valve. In the present study, we evaluated the merits of the extended vertical transseptal approach in comparison with the transseptal approach for mitral valve operations. METHODS A total of 72 consecutive patients operated on for mitral procedures were allocated to ...

OBJECTIVE The early and late results of infective endocarditis (IE) with annular involvement were studied by focusing on surgical findings and operative procedures. MATERIALS AND METHODS Fifteen adult patients with a mean age of 56 years were reviewed. Eight had native valve endocarditis (NVE), and 7 had prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE). The diseased valve was mitral in 6 patients, aortic ...