Mitral valve repair in patients with low left ventricular ejection fractions: early and late results.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: This retrospective study was performed to examine the outcome of mitral valve repair (ie, mitral valvuloplasty [MVP]) in relation to preoperative low left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). DESIGN AND SETTINGS: From our series of 338 consecutive patients who underwent MVP between 1983 and 2001, we compared the course of 302 patients with preoperative LVEF of > 35% (group I) to that of 36 patients with LVEF of