BACKGROUNDRepair of anterior mitral leaflet (AML) prolapse is still a technical challenge for cardiac surgeons. It is an important issue to find a way to repair the AML prolapse with a reliable and reproducible technique.

METHODSBetween January 2002 and June 2009, the operation of chordal transfer based on the "edge-to-edge" technique was performed in 21 patients with serious mitral valve regurgitation because of prolapse of the anterior leaflet. After the operation, echocardiography was performed in each patient before discharge and at the time of follow-up.

RESULTSAll patients survived the operation. One patient required mitral valve replacement because of anterior leaflet perforation 3 days after the operation. The other patients were free from reoperation. At the time of follow-up, all these patients were in New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class I. In all these patients, pre-discharge and follow-up echocardiography showed neither stenosis nor significant regurgitation of the mitral valve: the cross-sectional area of the mitral valve was 3.3 - 4.8 cm(2) (mean (3.78 ± 0.52) cm(2)), the mean regurgitation area was (0.45 ± 0.22) cm(2). At the same time, both dimension of left atrium and left ventricle reduced significantly (left atrium diameter: pre-operation (48.26 ± 11.12) mm, post-operation (37.57 ± 9.56) mm, P < 0.05; the end-diastolic diameter of the left ventricle: pre-operation (61.43 ± 8.24) mm, post-operation (42.35 ± 10.79) mm, P < 0.01).

CONCLUSION"Edge-to-edge" chordal transfer technique is a simple, reliable, and reproducible technique that can provide good results for repair of anterior leaflet prolapse of mitral valve.