The surgical treatment of mitral insufficiency and combined mitral stenosis and insufficiency using the heart-lung machine

Open heart surgery now offers a method for correction of mitral insufficiency. The technic consists of posteromedial annuloplasty. The details of the operation are important in that only the annulus of the mural leaflet should be narrowed and not the annulus of the aortic leaflet. In retrospect in only three of the fortytwo patients would the use of a plastic valve be indicated. The surgical mortality was 15 per cent and the patients with good or excellent results comprised 86 per cent of the living patients.