Surgical treatment of mitral insufficiency using annuloplasty suture technic

In 1991 a simple and cheap technique was introduced for mitral valve repair at our department. After repairing the mitral leaflets, where indicated a posterior leaflet annuloplasty was performed with a semicircular suture and the annulus fixed for the appropriate size by tying the stitch. Between July 1991 and December 1995 86 patients underwent the above procedure (average age 56.8 +/- 10.4 years). 45 patients had primary mitral valve disease (myxomatous degeneration, rheumatoid disease, endocarditis), the other 41 had functional mitral regurgitation secondary to severe aortic valve or coronary artery disease. Echocardiography showed severe mitral regurgitation in 77% of the patients. In 45 cases the mitral valve itself was also repaired (valvotomy, quadrangular resection, wedge resection, etc.) in 29 cases the aortic valve was replaced as well, while 24 patients required additional revascularisation of the myocardium. The 30 day mortality was 3.5%. One week after surgery echocardiography was performed at all patients and showed acceptable mitral valve area (2.28 +/- 0.39 cm2). In 28 cases mild mitral regurgitation was found, the other valves were competent. All but 3 patients were followed up (96.4%). There were 6 late deaths (3 cardiac, 2 non cardiac, 1 embolic, 7.2% late mortality). During the follow up period (31.7 +/- 11.2 months) 5 patients required mitral valve replacement for severe recurrent mitral regurgitation (6.0%). In two cases new chorda rupture caused the recurrence, in an other case the suture had torn out of the annulus due to inadequate surgical technique. In the last two cases the annulus had dilated with intact Prolene annuloplasty stitch present, 86.8% of the survivors were in NYHA class I. or II. Our results suggest that mitral valve repair in selected cases can be performed without using expensive annuloplasty rings. The suture used for annuloplasty should be strong, non absorbable and non stretchable. Since 1994, when we started using GoreTex suture instead of Prolene no more patients required reoperation for annuloplasty failure.