Good, brief info on Mitral Valve Replacement

[Karlynn]

I ran across this brief explanation of Mitral Valve Replacement on the Society of Thoracic Surgeons website. It was written in 2000, but I thought it gave a pretty good synopsis of the high points. I thought it might be helpful for those like me who hate wading through long complicated articles, even though I will if I have to.

http://www.sts.org/doc/4101

Edit
Here is the article for Aortic Replacement
http://www.sts.org/sections/patientinformation/valvesurgery/aorticvalve/index.html

And for Mitral Repair
http://www.sts.org/sections/patientinformation/valvesurgery/mitralvalverepair/index.html

The articles are all written by a Mayo Clinic thoracic surgeon.

 

[WayneGM]

This is pretty good stuff, Karlynn. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Lynlw]

That site has the best info, I could spend days there,thanks

 

[Mary]

I looked at this to see what they have to say about mitral valves since my husband's sisters (3) all have mitral valve prolapse as well as his mother. One sister has been followed by a cardiologist for more than 20 years.

This statement in the link caught my eye: Mitral valve problems are rarely caused by a birth defect, otherwise known as a congenital condition

Is this true? Is Bob's family history with mitral valve problems unique?

 

[Blanche]

Great, great resource

Great, great resource

Karlynn:

What an excellent find. Should be very helpful. Sure wish we had something like this in 1990 when Al had his surgery. We should ask Ross to put them in the reference section here for easy access.

Kind regards,
Blanche

 

[Karlynn]

I looked at this to see what they have to say about mitral valves since my husband's sisters (3) all have mitral valve prolapse as well as his mother. One sister has been followed by a cardiologist for more than 20 years.

This statement in the link caught my eye: Mitral valve problems are rarely caused by a birth defect, otherwise known as a congenital condition

Is this true? Is Bob's family history with mitral valve problems unique?

You know what Mary - good question! I don't know. My Mom had and my sister has very mild MVP. Although neither have/had any problems with it. I was always told my MVP was non-rheumatic, which would lead me to thinking it was congenital. Both my children have "slight buckles" in their mitral valves.

 

[halleyg]

Thanks for posting

Thanks for posting

I am having mitral valve replacement next month, and although I have read a lot about it, it helps to read the information again. Makes it more real to me and maybe less scary (although ask me tomorrow)

 

[Adam 12-21-05]

I am having mitral valve replacement next month, and although I have read a lot about it, it helps to read the information again. Makes it more real to me and maybe less scary (although ask me tomorrow)

halleyg,

i could ask you tomorrow...

but i know you are going to do great next month...

an early "congratulations"!



cheers,

adam

 

[MaryC]

I looked at this to see what they have to say about mitral valves since my husband's sisters (3) all have mitral valve prolapse as well as his mother. One sister has been followed by a cardiologist for more than 20 years.

This statement in the link caught my eye: Mitral valve problems are rarely caused by a birth defect, otherwise known as a congenital condition

Is this true? Is Bob's family history with mitral valve problems unique?

Mary,
I don't know if my family's situation is rare, but I am 1 of 10 kids - 7 of us have been diagnosed with mitral valve prolapse...the other 3 haven't had echos. When I first started seeing a cardiologst in 1993 I had 2 sisters who had been diagnosed.....one sister had just had mitral valve replacement. My cardiologist did not seem to put very much emphasis on what I was telling him about my family history - even as the number of us diagnosed continued to increase. The surgeon, however, has always called it familial mitral valve.

Good articles. I like articles that get straight to the details.

 

[Freddie]

This is such a good thread, I thought I would just refresh it for the new memebers

 

[Trinityheart8891]

I have congenital mitral stenosis,
it may be rare, but its definitely out there!

 

[EireCara]

Iv got MVR with 3 clefts on the anterior leaflet of the mitral valve..... Does that sound congenital ? Is it normal to have '' ANY '' clefts on the leaflets ???? What I mean is, does a normal valve have 1 or 2 clefts, and I just happen to have 3. Sorry if that sounds silly ! 8-/

 

[Marty]

Mitral valve prolapse is a congenital abnormality. In most people it never causes symptoms and never has to be treated. In some like me degenerative changes in the valve resulted in malfunction called regurgitation. This can only be corrected by repair or replacement. In recent years MVP has been labeled as a cause for arrythmias like fibrillation and flutter.