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 insufficiency subsequent displacement of the papillary muscles and the dilatation of the mitral valve annulus. Rheumatic fever (RF) and Marfan's syndrome are other typical causes. Mitral valve stenosis (MVS) can sometimes be a cause of mitral regurgitation (MR) in the sense that a stenotic valve (calcified and with restricted range of movement) allows backflow (regurgitation) if it is too stiff and misshapen to close completely. Most MVS is caused by RF, so one can say that MVS is sometimes the proximal cause of MI/MR (that is, stenotic MI/MR) and that RF is often the distal cause of MVS, MI/MR, or both.