Evaluating and Training Intraoperative Analysis of the Mitral Valve

Abstract

Mitral valve repair is the recommended method of treating valve incompetency. However, the procedure is quite difficult and, as a result, underperformed due to surgeon’s need to predict the closed valve shape of the patient’s arrested heart. While the interactive process of predicting closed valve shape is achieved by physically manipulating valve tissue (known as valve analysis), surgical training consists of traditional, non-interactive pedagogy (e.g., book-based learning and lectures) followed by an apprenticeship model where the trainee is gradually given hands-on experience, resulting in post-medical school training that is often 10 years or greater. The continuing education of practicing cardiac surgeons also typically relies on the absorption of presented information rather than hands-on instruction. The dichotomy of training an interactive process thorugh noninteractive instruction is obvious and inefficient. Therefore, in this work we develop an interactive, simulation-based system for training valve analysis and the prediction of closed valve shape. We show that not only can such a system distinguish between users of differing skill levels, but it also is more effective than traditional pedagogy in training predictive skills, suggesting the potential of such methods to improve existing instruction and thereby increasing the rate of valve repair.