Beating heart Mitral valve repair
(e.g. Harpoon, NeoChord)

Totally endoscopic mitral valve repair remains the gold standard technique.

Beating heart mitral valve repair is a relatively new technology It is performed through a 4-5 incision similar to minimally invasive surgery. The longer-term results are still unknown but the short- and medium-term results can be as good as conventional surgery. The risks of this technique are very low and recovery time usually very quick. Beating heart mitral valve repair is not an option for everybody. Whether or not you are suitable for this technique depends on the mechanism of the valve leak and the results of your echo and CT scans.

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In my experience the Neochord technique often does not remove completely the leak but reducing the level of the leak to mild.

Harpoon is a new device allowing to capture the leaflet more accurately with better outcome.

Not every patient is suitable for these procedures, often we offer these procedures on patients with small annulus, long leaflets and or not candidate to conventional surgery.

These procedures do not provide the same outcome as the surgical repair as we only treat one component of the disease (chordae) without tackling the leaflet and the mitral annulus, however some patients can be suitable for surgical mitral valve repair.

Our Team

Toufan Bahrami

Mr Toufan Bahrami is a senior consultant in cardiac surgery , working at both Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospital, where he treats both NHS and private patients.

He also works at The Harley street clinic in central London .With more than 4000 cardiac operations of which 1500 are minimally invasive procedures over past 21 years, He is the   only consultant in UK expert in all aspects of minimally invasive cardiac surgery including , Mitral , Aortic valve and root and CABG with a longstanding track record.

Saeed Mirsadraee

Dr Mirsadraee’s specialist interest is cardiovascular imaging and in particular imaging of the heart valves, surgical and transcatheter aortic and mitral valve procedure planning, and complex aortic conditions. He is the radiology lead for aortic and mitral imaging at the Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals. Dr Mirsadraee uses CT images in planning Mitral valve procedures such as minimal access mitral valve surgery, transcatheter mitral valve implantation (eg. Tendyne, Sapien in ring/MAC), cord and left ventricular remodelling procedures (eg. Accucinch, Neocord).

Ali Vazir

Dr Ali Vazir is a consultant cardiologist based at the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals, part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. He is also an Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London. 

He is an expert in heart failure and echocardiography. He is the clinical lead for heart failure at the Royal Brompton Hospital. He trained in London and was a Post-doctoral research fellow at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. He is a principal investigator for several multicenter trials. 

Lauren Connolly

Lauren has worked within the cardiology and cardiac surgery care setting for seven years. In recent years she has worked within the structural heart team as clinical nurse specialist and co-ordinator for the trans catheter team, specifically focusing in mitral and tricuspid valve disease.

Dr Robert Smith

Dr Smith’s specialist interest is Mitral valve disease and interventions. He leads one of the largest structural heart disease programmes in Europe at the world renowned Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospitals. It is also the first centre of excellence for MitraClip in the world.