MitraClip: a novel percutaneous approach to mitral valve repair

As life expectancy increases, valvular heart disease is becoming more common. Management of heart disease and primarily valvular heart disease is expected to represent a significant proportion of healthcare provided to the elderly population. Recent years have brought a progression of surgical treatments toward less invasive strategies. This has given rise to percutaneous approaches for the correction of valvular heart disease. Percutaneous mitral valve repair using the MitraClip system (Abbott Vascular, Santa Clara, CA, USA) creates a double orifice and has been successfully used in selected patients with mitral regurgitation. We review the rationale, procedural aspects, and clinical data thus far available for the MitraClip approach to mitral regurgitation.