Percutaneous Mitral Valve Repair with a Clip Device

In the early 1990s, Alfieri and colleagues pioneered a simple surgical approach to mitral valve repair in which the middle scallops of the mitral leaflets are manipulated to create a double-orifice valve. Researchers recently introduced a percutaneous, transseptal method to make the same type of repair. It uses a clip device to grasp the mitral leaflet edges and create the double orifice.

Now, investigators (several with financial ties to the device manufacturer, one a company cofounder) have tested this percutaneous method in a phase I multicenter trial involving 27 low-risk candidates for mitral valve surgery (mean age, 69). All patients had moderate-to-severe or severe mitral regurgitation (MR grade ≥3+ or ≥4+); 93% had degenerative MR, a…