Over the last decade, repair of the mitral valve (MV) has become widely favored over its replacement. Data available from such sources as the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Adult Cardiac Surgery Database (STS ACSD) have documented this trend at non-governmental hospitals, but there is little known about mitral surgery practice in the largest federal health system in the US - the Veterans Affairs (VA) Health System. In a presentation at the 96th AATS Annual Meeting, Faisal G. Bakaeen, MD, presents data from more than 4,100 mitral valve surgeries showing that mitral valve operations are performed with low mortality in the VA and that the percentage of repair vs. replacement surgeries has increased significantly since 2001. However, despite the survival advantage for mitral repair in primary mitral regurgitation, the rate of valve repair was quite variable among the VA centers and offers an opportunity for system-wide quality improvement.
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