Mitral valve repair on the beating perfused heart.

It is difficult to assess the success of mitral valve repair in the arrested heart. Various techniques have been described. Transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) provides excellent two-dimensional evaluation of the repair, but three-dimensional anatomic characteristics are limited. We describe a simple technique for performing mitral valve repair on the beating heart. This allows accurate evaluation of valvular competence and three-dimensional anatomic characteristics prior to closure of the atriotomy.