[Mitral valve surgery in the elderly].

We report a retrospective study about 34 patients operated for on mitral valve between 1981 and 2000. All patients were aged more than 65 years. 82% of them were in the class III or IV of the NYHA. 31 of patients had a valvular mitral replacement (by a mechanical protheses in 24 cases and a biological protheses in 7 cases) and 3 patients had a mitral valve reconstruction. An aortic valve replacement was associated in 7 cases, and a myocardial revascularisation in 4 cases. The early mortality rate was 17,6% and the late mortality was 12%. The high mortality is meanly related to the associate lesions (coronarography) and the prognosis is a better with the improvement of surgical technics and perioperative management.