OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to present the immediate and long-term results of mitral valve repair using the double Teflon technique in patients with mitral insufficiency due to myxomatous disease and severely calcified annuli. METHOD: Between 1985 and 2002, 162 patients with mitral insufficiency due to myxomatous degeneration were submitted to mitral valve repair in the Heart Institute of University of São Paulo Medical School. From these, 13 presented severely calcified annuli and underwent mitral valve repair with quadrangular resection and annuloplasty using the double Teflon technique. The mean patient age was 65.4 +/- 12.9 year with 69.2% of the patients being male. One (7.7%) patient had associated coronary artery disease and was submitted to coronary artery bypass grafting. In the preoperative period, 15.4% of the patients were in functional class IV of the New York Heart Association, 69.2% in class III and 15.4% in class II. RESULTS: There was no operative death.In late postoperative period, 90.9% of the surviving patients were in functional class I. There were no episodes of hemolysis or endocarditis. One patient was reoperated on the second postoperative month and was submitted to mitral valve replacement. The actuarial survival at 14 years was 71.4% +/- 17.1%. CONCLUSIONS: Mitral valve repair using the double Teflon technique in patients with myxomatous disease and severely calcified annuli presented satisfactory survival rates and good clinical evolution and proved to be a better alternative than mitral valve replacement.
Mitral valve insufficiency; Mitral valve; Heart valves
