Why Repair the Valve in Patients with Moderate Mitral Leakage who undergo CABG Surgery?
We know that patients who never had mitral valve leakage have better outcomes following CABG surgery than those with a moderate degree of mitral leakage, which suggests that repairing the mitral valve could be beneficial. In addition, we know that mitral repair is effective in stopping the leakage, that this effect is long lasting, and there have been significant improvements in the mitral valve repair procedure over time. 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 no
