Mitral valve replacement to treat heart valve disease without surgery are divided into three categories: Clinical Practice treatment (this is used in every day clinical practice), Investigational treatment (current clinical studies that are underway), Early Development treatment (early stages of investigation). People having mitral valve surgery receive general anesthesia. Incision can be made somewhat horizontally under the left breast, or vertically through the sternum. After the heart is exposed, canulae are placed to reroute blood to a heart-lung machine for cardiopulmonary bypass. An incision is made in the left atrium to expose the mitral valve. The valve is then replaced with either a
Mitral valve prolapse to the other. Patients with asymmetric prolapse are susceptible to severe deterioration of the mitral valve, with the possible rupture of the chordae tendineae and the development of a flail leaflet. Asymmetric prolapse is further subdivided into flail and non-flail. Flail prolapse occurs when a leaflet tip turns outward, becoming concave toward the left atrium, causing the deterioration of the mitral valve. The severity of flail leaflet varies, ranging from tip eversion to chordal rupture. Dissociation of leaflet and chordae tendineae provides for unrestricted motion of the leaflet (hence "flail leaflet"). Thus patients with flail leaflets have a higher prevalence