Surgical phantom for off-pump mitral valve replacement

Off-pump, intracardiac, beating heart surgery has the potential to improve patient outcomes by eliminating the need for cardiopulmonary bypass and aortic cross clamping but it requires extensive image guidance as well as the development of specialized instrumentation. Previously, developments in image guidance and instrumentation were validated on either a static phantom or in vivo through porcine models. This paper describes the design and development of a surgical phantom for simulating off-pump mitral valve replacement inside the closed beating heart. The phantom allows surgical access to the mitral annulus while mimicking the pressure inside the beating heart. An image guidance system using tracked ultrasound, magnetic instrument tracking and preoperative models previously developed for off-pump mitral valve replacement is applied to the phantom. Pressure measurements and ultrasound images confirm the phantom closely mimics conditions inside the beating heart. \ua9 2011 SPIE.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Evaluation of mitral valve replacement anchoring in a phantom

Conventional mitral valve replacement requires a median sternotomy and cardio-pulmonary bypass with aortic crossclamping and is associated with significant mortality and morbidity which could be reduced by performing the procedure off-pump. Replacing the mitral valve in the closed, off-pump, beating heart requires extensive development and validation of surgical and imaging techniques. Image guidance systems and surgical access for off-pump mitral valve replacement have been previously developed, allowing the prosthetic valve to be safely introduced into the left atrium and inserted into the mitral annulus. The major remaining challenge is to design a method of securely anchoring the prosthetic valve inside the beating heart. The development of anchoring techniques has been hampered by the expense and difficulty in conducting large animal studies. In this paper, we demonstrate how prosthetic valve anchoring may be evaluated in a dynamic phantom. The phantom provides a consistent testing environment where pressure measurements and Doppler ultrasound can be used to monitor and assess the valve anchoring procedures, detecting pararvalvular leak when valve anchoring is inadequate. Minimally invasive anchoring techniques may be directly compared to the current gold standard of valves sutured under direct vision, providing a useful tool for the validation of new surgical instruments. \ua9 2012 Copyright Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye