Author’s Reply: Mitral valve surgery; from median sternotomy to closed chest procedures, from replacement to repair techniques/Clinical outcomes of mitral valve repair in mitral regurgitation: a prospective analysis of 100 consecutive patients

Mitral valve repair has become a standard surgical treatment for mitral regurgitation in chronic degenerative disease and selected cases of mixed mitral pathologies. Favorable postoperative outcome and patient’s benefit after surgery allowed both cardiac surgeons and cardiac specialists to recommend mitral repair, instead of making a mechanical valve replacement. Repair procedure is associated with a lower rate of reoperation, thromboembolism and valve infection than mitral valve replacement. During the last two decades, the number of mitral valve repair procedures has increased across the world. However, we are not aware of the actual number of repair procedures in our country; it is considered less than replacement procedures as well as expected numbers for chronic MR. This situation can be related to prolonged follow-up time of patients under medical treatment, instead of referring to a specialist for repair before myocardial function deteriorates. Another concern can be the presence of inadequate number of surgeons experienced in valve repair. Nevertheless, cardiologists and surgeons in our country have observed that the results of mitral repair procedures are much more successful and durable than their expectations. In our series of 100 consecutive patients undergoing surgical mitral repair, we aimed to present our preliminary results of mitral valve repair, and to focus on the benefit of repair procedures (1).