Why not Repair Moderate Mitral Regurgitation in Patients who undergo CABG Surgery?
We know that patients who have CABG surgery alone, without mitral valve repair for moderate leakage, do well. About half the patients with this problem are now treated this way. Treating with CABG surgery alone shortens the operation and allows the procedure to be done without opening the heart. In some patients, the mitral valve leakage improves after CABG surgery alone and in many others the leakage remains, but results in no symptoms or other medical problems. In fact, if you did not need to have CABG surgery, there would be no reason to have a procedure to repair your valve for just moderate leakage. Why is this study necessary? The available evidence addressing this issue has not been obtained through planned experiments such as this one, but rather from observations of the results of the two surgical approaches that are both widely recommended and performed. These observations have produced conflicting results. Thus, we do not know whether or not mitral repair adds additional ben
