6th July 2011

Doctors shown ropes in heart op

MORE than 40 years after the condition was first identified, South African cardiac surgeons have gone back to the classroom to learn a technique little known and performed in the country.

Yesterday, cardiologists and surgeons gathered at Netcare Milpark Hospital in Joburg to learn how to perform a mitral valve repair – an intricate procedure to rectify a mitral valve defect.

The mitral valve regulates blood flow to the left-hand side of the heart and is made up of two tissue flaps (leaflets) that open and close. In between heartbeats, the leaflets meet perfectly to form a seal that prevents blood from leaking backwards into the heart.

In patients with mitral valve prolapse (MVP), one or both of the leaflets become redundant, thicken and fail to close properly, allowing blood back into the heart.

Professor Mohammed Rafique Essop, head of the cardiology unit at Chris Hani-Baragwanath Academic Hospital, said valve repair surgery was used in just 10 percent of cases of MVP because the procedure was not well known among cardiac surgeons.