Leakage test during mitral valve repair

Mitral valve repair is the preferred surgical treatment for mitral regurgitation. Cardiac surgeons must increasingly pursue high-quality mitral valve repair, which ensures excellent long-term outcomes. Intraoperative assessment of a competency of the repaired mitral valve before closure of the atrium is an important step in accomplishing successful mitral valve repair. Saline test is the most simple and popular method to evaluate the repaired valve. In addition, an “Ink test” can provide confirmation of the surface of coaptation, which is often insufficient in the assessment of saline test. There are sometimes differences between the findings of the leakage test in an arrested heart and the echocardiographic findings after surgery. Assessment of the mitral valve in an arrested heart may not accurately reflect its function in a contractile heart. Assessment of the valve on the beating heart induced by antegrade or retrograde coronary artery perfusion can provide a more physiological assessment of the repaired valve. Perfusion techniques during beating heart surgery mainly include antegrade coronary artery perfusion without aortic cross-clamping, and retrograde coronary artery perfusion via the coronary sinus with aortic cross-clamping. It is the most important point for the former approach to avoid air embolism with such precaution as CO₂ insufflation, left ventricular venting, and transesophageal echocardiography, and for the latter approach to maintain high perfusion flow rate of coronary sinus and adequate venting. Leakage test during mitral valve repair increasingly takes an important role in successful mitral valve reconstruction.