title: Preoperative determination of artificial chordae length.
abstract: We present a practical and accurate way to measure artificial chordae length in mitral valve repair. During preoperative transesophageal echocardiography, the distance between the head of the posterior papillary muscle and the mitral annulus plane at the coaptation of the leaflets is measured; this is the length of the new chorda. Every millimeter of braided 4-0 Gore-Tex (W.L. Gore & Assoc, Flagstaff, AZ) contains two tight reverse knots; therefore, the number of the knots determines the accurate length of the artificial chorda.
authors.affiliation: Cardiac Surgery Department, Day General Hospital, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Hossein
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Mandegar
authors.forename: Mohammad Ali
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Yousefnia
authors.forename: Farideh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Roshanali
mesh_terms: D002815:Chordae Tendineae / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D017548:Echocardiography, Transesophageal; D019918:Heart Valve Prosthesis Implantation / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008943:Mitral Valve / Q000601:surgery*; D008945:Mitral Valve Prolapse / Q000601:surgery*; D010210:Papillary Muscles