A computational procedure for prediction of structural effects of edge-to-edge repair on mitral valve

Edge-to-edge technique is a surgical procedure for the correction of mitral valve leaflets prolapse by suturing the edge of the prolapsed leaflet to the free edge of the opposing one. Suture presence modifies valve mechanical behavior and orifice flow area in the diastolic phase, when the valve opens and blood flows into the ventricle. In the present work, in order to support identification of potentially critical conditions, a computational procedure is described to evaluate the effects of changing suture length and position in combination with valve size and shape. The procedure is based on finite element method analyses applied to a range of different mitral valves, investigating for each configuration the influence of repair on functional parameters, such as mitral valve orifice area and transvalvular pressure gradient, and on structural parameters, such as stress in the leaflets and stitch tension. This kind of prediction would ideally require a coupled fluid-structural analysis, where the interactions between blood flows and mitral apparatus deformation are simultaneously considered. In the present study, however, an alternative approach is proposed, in which results obtained by purely structural finite element analyses are elaborated and interpreted taking into account the Bernoulli type equations available in literature to describe blood flow through mitral orifice. In this way, the effects of each parameter in terms of orifice flow area, suture loads, and leaflets stresses can be expressed as functions of atrioventricular pressure gradient and then correlated to blood flow rate. Results obtained by using this procedure for different configurations are finally discussed.