The mortality rate of mitral valve repair surgery depends on the type of problem with the mitral valve. In general, the mortality of mitral valve repair surgery is low in the both the perioperative period (time period immediately around the surgery) and long term.
The most common type of problem with the mitral valve is known as degenerative mitral valve disease. The mortality has been shown to be very low with surgical repair of degerative valve disease. The perioperative mortality is around 2%, which may be higher or lower depending on additional medical problems in a patient (known as comorbidities). One study of mitral valve repair mortality evaluated 162 patients who received surgery between 1970 and 1984. The 20 year mortality was found to be 48%, which is similar to the general population with the same age distribution. Another study of repair mortality demonstrated a 0.3% surgical mortality, and 93% of patients did not need a second operation after 10 years. These results show that mitral valve repair surgery has a low risk of mortality.
Other types of mitral valve disease are caused by infection (rheumatic heart disease) and myocardial infarction (or heart attacks). There is a lower survival rate with mitral valve repair surgery in these types of valve disease.
