Background: In young patients, the most common cause of mitral valve regurgitation is prolapse or flail of the valve, which is morphologically reflected by myxomatous degeneration. In rare cases, such this presented in this paper, this lesion might be incidentally identified, in young people.
Case presentation: A 43-year-old male, with familial history of hypertension, presented in our Department of Cardiology for a routine check-up. Despite of lack of symptoms, an intense murmur was detected at mitral auscultation area. The echocardiography revealed a severe mitral regurgitation caused by flail of posterior mitral valve. The patient was transferred to the Cardiac Surgery Department for surgical intervention consisting in mitral valve repair. The histopathological examination revealed severe myxomatous degeneration of the spongiosa and fibrosa layers. The recovery after surgery was very good with no postoperative complications. The patient was discharged seven days after surgery, with no significant mitral regurgitation at the three-month follow-up.
Conclusions: In young, asymptomatic patients, the proper time for mitral valve repair should be decided by an interdisciplinary team. For a better understanding of myxomatous degeneration particularities, histopathological assessment should be done in any replaced valve. Certification of such lesions, under microscope, might be an indicator for familial cardiovascular screening, in first degree relatives.