Resuspension of the uninfarcted papillary muscle at the time of mitral valve replacement in a patient with post myocardial infarction papillary muscle rupture

A 60-year-old woman was referred to the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery of Social Insurance Chukyo Hospital for the rupture of a postinfarction papillary muscle. The rupture was in the posterior part of the anterolateral papillary muscle, in which more than two-thirds of its posterior leaflet was prolapsed. Mortality from the surgical repair of a papillary muscle rupture is quite high. For this case, we resuspended the uninfarcted papillary muscle heads case to preserve mitral ventricular continuity because the mitral annulus was quite small and more than two-thirds of the posterior leaflet were detached from the papillary muscle. The post-operative course of the patient was uneventful. Resuspension of uninfarcted papillary muscle is a useful technique to repair a rupture in the papillary muscle.