Mitral Valve Disease
What is Mitral Regurgitation?
Patients with more progressive mitral valve disease will have what is called mitral regurgitation which is a condition where the mitral valve does not close tightly, allowing blood to flow backward inside the heart. Mitral regurgitation can also be referred to as mitral insufficiency or mitral incompetence.
What causes Mitral Regurgitation?
- Age related degeneration from wear and tear
- Prior infection like rheumatic fevers that causes scarring and damage
- Active infection such as endocarditis
- Congenital heart defects acquired from birth Weakened heart muscle due to prior heart attacks
Mitral Valve Stenosis
Mitral valve stenosis — sometimes called mitral stenosis — is a narrowing of the heart's mitral valve. This abnormal valve doesn't open properly, blocking blood flow into the main pumping chamber of your heart (left ventricle).
Surgical approaches to the management of mitral stenosis include closed commissurotomy, open commissurotomy, and mitral valve replacement. Closed commissurotomy is similar to PBMV in that the mitral valve is not directly visualized and a balloon is used to dilate the stenotic mitral valve.
Mitral Valve Surgery
Sarasota Memorial IS a Mitral Valve Reference Center
The Mitral Foundation and the American Heart Association® have created a recognition program to identify, award, and promote the nation’s best medical centers for mitral valve repair surgery. Dr. Hoffberger was named Reference Surgeon for this award.
Patients and physicians need a way to differentiate hospitals and surgeons who have mastered complex mitral valve reconstruction and have consistently delivered high quality outcomes. While clinical guidelines recommend mitral valve repair over replacement, too many patients who would benefit from repair receive replacement valves, with higher rates of death or complications within five years after surgery.
Numerous large-scale clinical outcomes studies show a strong correlation between the number of cases performed by experienced mitral valve surgeons and the resultant clinical outcomes. This recognition program uses volume, resource, and clinical performance measures to award these experienced hospitals and surgeons.
3-Star Rating from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons
One of just three cardiac programs in the United States and Canada, in 2019, Sarasota Memorial Hospital earned the highest 3-Star rating from The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) for patient care and outcomes in all five adult cardiac surgery procedures STS measures - Isolated Coronary Artery Bypass (CABG), Isolated Aortic Valve Replacement (AVR), AVR + CABG, Isolated Mitral Valve Replacement/Repair (MVRR) and MVRR + CABG.
Denoting the highest category of quality among hospitals, the cardiac surgery team is among the top performers of more than 3,800 participating cardiothoracic surgeons.
Founded in 1964, STS is a not-for-profit organization representing more than 7,600 surgeons, researchers, and allied health care professionals worldwide who are dedicated to ensuring the best possible outcomes for surgeries of the heart, lungs, and esophagus, as well as other surgical procedures within the chest.
