Mitral valve replacement gradually to regain strength. Patients who have physically demanding jobs will have to wait a little longer than those who don’t. Patients are also restricted from driving a car for six weeks after the surgery. Once a person has a mitral valve procedure, they are required to have prophylactic antibiotics as a preventative measure against infection whenever they have dental work done. Some scarring occurs after surgery. For median sternotomy (access through the sternum, or breastbone), the patient will have a vertical scar on the anterior chest above the sternum. If the heart is accessed from under the left breast
Mitral valve away from the free margin. This disposition has important effects on systolic stress distribution physiology The mitral annulus is a fibrous ring that is attached to the mitral valve leaflets. Unlike prosthetic valves, it is not continuous. The mitral annulus is saddle shaped and changes in shape throughout the cardiac cycle. The annulus contracts and reduces its surface area during systole to help provide complete closure of the leaflets. Expansion of the annulus can result in leaftlets that do not join soundly together, leading to functional mitral regurgitation. The normal diameter of the mitral annulus is , and the circumference