Pre-clinical Experience with a Multi-Chordal Patch for Mitral Valve Repair.

Surgical repair of flail mitral valve leaflets with neochordoplasty has good outcomes, but implementing it in anterior and bi-leaflet leaflet repair is challenging. Placing and sizing individual neochordae is time consuming and error prone, with persistent localized flail if performed incorrectly. In this study, we report our pre-clinical experience with a novel multi-chordal patch for mitral valve repair. The device was designed based on human cadaver hearts, and laser cut from expanded polytetrafluoroethylene. The prototypes were tested in: (stage 1) ex vivo hearts with leaflet flail (N = 6), (stage 2) acute swine induced with flail (N = 6), and (stage 3) two chronic swine survived to 23 and 120 days (N = 2). A2 and P2 prolapse were successfully repaired with coaptation length restored to 8.1 ± 2.2mm after posterior repair and to 10.2 ± 1.3mm after anterior repair in ex vivo hearts. In vivo, trace regurgitation was seen after repair with excellent patch durability, healing, and endothelialization at euthanasia. A new device for easier mitral repair is reported, with good early pre-clinical outcomes.