Background and aim of the study: Mitral valve repair for degenerative and ischemic mitral valve regurgitation has been shown to be a durable procedure. The study aim was to evaluate the quality of life of patients who had undergone mitral valve repair, and to compare it to that of an age- and gender-adjusted Finnish general population.
Methods: Among 130 late survivors after mitral valve repair, 109 (83.8%) answered the RAND-36 Health Survey questionnaire; these patients form the basis of the present study.
Results: The Wilcoxon test showed significantly higher mental health (p = 0.04) and pain scores (p = 0.015) and a lower role functioning/physical score (p = 0.008) in the study group.

The scores of the other RAND-36 Health Survey variables of the study group were similar to those of the age- and gender-adjusted general population. The mean total score for the study group was 512 (median 532, IQR 360-678), compared to 522 (median 538, IQR 468-549) in the general population (p = 0.72) (only 95 patients were included in the analysis due to isolated missing scores).
Conclusion: The quality of life of long-term survivors after mitral valve repair, as assessed by the RAND-36 Health Survey, is similar to that of an age- and gender-adjusted general Finnish population.

The Journal of Heart Valve Disease 2005;14:722-726