A novel bileaflet sparing technique during mitral valve replacement: Lafci’s fold down technique

Sub-valvular apparatus preservation procedure is an additional technique to mitral valve replacement which decrease the prevalence of low cardiac output syndrome and associated complications that may be seen after mitral valve replacement. A number of surgical techniques for both bileaflet and posterior leaflet preservation have been described previously. We aimed to share how we do the bileaflet preservation with a modified technique, Lafci’s anterior leaflet fold down technique, in selected patients who underwent mitral valve replacement procedure. With absence of resection and use of same sutures for both sparing leaflet and fixing mechanical valve may shorten cross-clamping time, and so, we believe that this technique is simple, reproducible when it is appropriate for the patient’s existing anatomy.