World-Class Mitral Valve Repair Care

Northwest Heart & Lung, a part of the Providence Heart Institute, is one of the few centers in the western United States to offer robotic mitral valve repairs and replacements. Our mitral valve providers and care team specialize in these surgeries. You can trust our team of experts to provide world-class mitral valve repair care.

Experience

Doctors with more experience provide patients with better clinical outcomes. The Mitral Foundation recommends selecting a Center where more than 50 mitral valve procedures are performed annually. Our group performs approximately 180 mitral valve surgeries each year, more than any heart program in the region.

Minimally Invasive Surgery Available

While robotic surgical systems are common in many hospitals, few cardiac surgeons have the skill, training and experience to perform robotic mitral valve repair. Our group was the first in Spokane to perform these procedures and have been caring for patients throughout the Pacific Northwest for nearly two decades.  We remain the only group in Spokane to offer robotic heart surgery and have the most experience of any robotic heart surgery group in the northwest.

Comprehensive Care

We make sure to connect you with the care team you need. Starting with comprehensive diagnostics like advanced imaging, echocardiography, MRI, CT scan and angiography, those results allow us to create an informed treatment plan with your board-certified cardiothoracic surgeon. And then a team of specialists work together in managing your post-op care. You can rest assured you’re getting the most comprehensive care available.

Personalized, Compassionate Care

Our multidisciplinary team evaluates each patient to determine if your specific condition requires surgery. Based on that assessment, a treatment and follow-up plan are developed that consider your treatment goals as well as your personal care needs and the needs of your family. 

Who is a Candidate for Robotic Surgery? 

Some patients are candidates for minimally invasive mitral valve repair. This approach can provide the same clinical outcomes as traditional surgery but with the added benefits of smaller scars, lower rates of bleeding and transfusion, faster recovery and less need for pain medication. 

Patients who require additional cardiac procedures, elderly patients and those who have weak hearts or very diseased arteries may not be candidates for minimally invasive mitral valve repair. Your cardiac surgeon will discuss your options with you. 

Questions to Ask Your Doctor

Robotic mitral valve repair is one type of minimally invasive mitral valve repair that allows the surgeon to use “wristed” robots, giving them better mobility and dexterity when holding the surgical instruments than if they held them themselves. It’s important to ask these questions of your doctor performing your surgery:

Experience matters. Well-qualified mitral valve repair surgeons usually perform a large number of procedures annually, and you should expect your surgeon to do at least 25 repairs a year for the mitral valve disease you have. Our group performs approximately 180 mitral valve surgeries each year, more than any heart program in the region.

You should choose a surgeon who has a high degree of success in repairing valves for your specific condition, especially if you are asymptomatic.

  

If the number of mitral valve replacements is similar to the number of mitral valve repairs, your surgeon may not be a reference mitral repair surgeon. Reference mitral valve repair surgeons generally repair well over 95% of the valves they encounter.

You want to be certain your mitral valve specialist will take as long as necessary to ensure quality outcomes with your mitral valve repair. It may take several hours to achieve mitral valve repair while a valve replacement can be completed in under an hour.

Residual regurgitation indicates significant leakage following a valve repair. A good repair should eliminate nearly all leakage. Expert mitral valve repair specialists know their regurgitation rate, which is usually well below 10%.

There is a growing body of evidence that indicates many mitral valve regurgitation patients also have an abnormal tricuspid valve, which also needs surgical attention. Many mitral valve surgeons will repair a tricuspid valve at the same time they repair a mitral valve.