Eglė Gatelienė, Elvyra Voluckienė, Loreta Ivaškevičienė, Giedrius Uždavinys, Giedrė Šemetienė

Heart Surgery Center, Vilnius University, Lithuania

Key words: Mitral/tricuspid insufficiency, double-orifice mitral valve, triple-orifice tricuspid valve.

Summary. Edge-to-edge approximation of the mitral leaflets and creation of a double-orifice mitral valve (Jatene-Alfieri procedure), for mitral regurgitation surgical treatment was effective in most cases, especially for patients who had rheumatic and degenerative valve disease, traumatic or ischemic mitral valve insufficiency. Positive results of double-orifice technique encourages to use this method to correct some forms of tricuspid insufficiency. Triple-orifice repair procedure is a lot more effective to correct central prolapses in all of the three leaflets (extraordinary elongated chordaes) and/or degenerative tricuspid annular dilation than the ordinary routine procedures.

This study aims to evaluate early and long-term postoperative outcomes for 29 patients after mitral double-orifice and/or triple orifice repair procedures. It also determines clinical and echocardiographic results at follow-up period for more than two years.

Correspondence to E. Gatelienė, Heart Surgery Center, Vilnius University, Santariškių 2, 2021 Vilnius, Lithuania

Received 16 September 2002, accepted 25 October 2002