Mitral valve replacement The choice of which valve type to use depends upon the patient's age, medical condition, preferences with medication, and lifestyle. New Developments (2014 -2017): Transcatheter mitral valve replacement or TMVR involves human heart mitral valve replacement without recourse to open-heart surgery. TMVR treats mitral valve stenosis and/or mitral valve regurgitation leading to mitral insufficiency. TMVR, initially developed by the company Tendyne (a subsidiary of Jean Boulle Medtech Ltd) for open-heart high risk patients is expected to replace traditional mitral valve replacement surgery in the longer term. The Tendyne mitral valve is placed inside a beating heart via a transcatheter at
Mitral valve the left ventricle. It has two leaflets (or 'cusps'), an anteromedial leaflet, and a posterolateral leaftlet. The opening of the mitral valve is surrounded by a fibrous ring known as the "mitral annulus". The anterior cusp covers approximately two-thirds of the valve (imagine a crescent moon within the circle, where the crescent represents the posterior cusp). Although the anterior leaflet takes up a larger part of the ring and rises higher, the posterior leaflet has a larger surface area. The valve leaflets are prevented from prolapsing into the left atrium by the action of chordae tendineae. The chordae tendineae are