Objective: Prosthetic annuloplasty rings play an important role in mitral valve repair. This clinical study was undertaken to evaluate the midterm results obtained with the Carpentier-Edwards rigid ring.
Methods: Between October 1991 and March 2005, 112 patients (mean age 53.0 years) underwent mitral valve repair with a Carpentier-Edwards rigid ring at our institution. Degenerative disease was the most frequent cause and a small number had other conditions such as endocarditis and rheumatic disease. Ten patients were in Carpentier's functional class Type I, 101 patients in Type II and 1 patient in Type III, based on valve pathology. Ischemic mitral regurgitation was excluded. The mean follow-up time was 5.3+/-3.6 years (range: 8 days to 12.3 years). All patients were completely followed by echocardiography.
Results: The rigid ring ranged from 26 to 36 mm in diameter and the most common size was 30 mm. Although the mitral orifice area was decreased after mitral valve repair in all patients, none of them required reoperation because of mitral stenosis or left ventricular outflow tract obstruction (systolic anterior motion). Reduction of both systolic and diastolic left ventricular volumes was observed postoperatively. Ejection fractions were preserved in all cases. The actuarial survival rate was 92.0+/-3.0% at 10 years and the reoperation-free rate at 10 years was 96.0+/-2.0%.
Conclusion: The rigid ring has produced promising midterm results in terms of reoperation-free and survival rates.