Treatment of Mitral Valve Disease

For the purposes of this chapter, treatment of mitral valve disease is divided into medical management, catheter valvuloplasty, and surgical techniques. Treatments are divided into those for mitral stenosis and those for mitral regurgitation. Specific attention is paid at the conclusion of this chapter to the issues of the results of mitral valve surgery (especially as regards ventricular function and patient outlook), the complications of mitral valve surgery, the controversies of repair versus replacement, and chordal division versus preservation, and the issue of mitral valve surgery in the “bad” ventricle.