Surgery for Mitral Valve Papillary Muscle Rupture: Implications of Replacement Versus Repair

Abstract

In this issue of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Kilic and colleagues1 used The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) Database to provide new insights regarding the surgical management of ischemic mitral valve papillary muscle rupture (PMR). The study confirms that an overwhelming majority of patients who undergo surgery for PMR are decompensated at baseline and have high morbidity postoperatively. The operative mortality for PMR remains approximately 20%, which has not appreciably improved over previous studies.