Learning Objective #1: Highlight the differences between mitral valve repairs and replacements

Learning Objective #2: Illustrate the surgical techniques utilized during mitral valve repair

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Mitral valve repair (MVr) is becoming the gold standard whenever possible versus mitral valve replacement (MVR). Mechanical or tissue valve duplicates, once considered the standard, are laden with potential problems such as infection and need to anticoagulate. Besides, most of us intuitively find it more appealing to keep our original parts. MVr desirability also includes improved preservation of heart pumping function, reduced cardiac reoperations and most importantly, improved survival. Yet in our day to day care, we found patients, referring physicians, and those responsible for follow up had limited understanding of the actual repairs to appreciate the outcome. Our service needed a tool to provide descriptive information on our MVr techniques. During the last 2 decades MVr has evolved into an art and our program has gained recognition for repairs within an echo/surgical team. Importance is placed both on the artistry along with the time and energy investment to carry out a full restoration. There is nothing like a picture to describe this unique work but such materials were just not available in the literature and intraoperative photos were too vivid. To achieve accurate portrayals, drawings of generic and actual repairs were rendered. The drawings were lucid, accurate as well as artistically pleasing and have been used by our team for staff, physician and patient teaching as well as presentations. The techniques of mitral valve repair including posterior and anterior leaflet reductions and/or re-suspension with repair of cords or artificial cords, with or without an annuloplasty along with other specific repairs were created for educational use. Now, when describing MVr operative procedure, the artistry of the repair can be easily understood secondary to the clear images provided. Feedback from patients, staff and physicians has shown these drawings both illuminate the complexity of the repair and showcase our work.