Percutaneous mitral valve repair with the MitraClip system: acute results from a real world setting

Aims This study sought to evaluate the feasibility and early outcomes of a percutaneous edge-to-edge repair approach for mitral valve regurgitation with the MitraClip® system (Evalve, Inc., Menlo Park, CA, USA). Methods and results Patients were selected for the procedure based on the consensus of a multidisciplinary team. The primary efficacy endpoint was acute device success defined as clip placement with reduction of mitral regurgitation to ≤2+. The primary acute safety endpoint was 30-day freedom from major adverse events, defined as the composite of death, myocardial infarction, non-elective cardiac surgery for adverse events, renal failure, transfusion of >2 units of blood, ventilation for >48 h, deep wound infection, septicaemia, and new onset of atrial fibrillation. Thirty-one patients (median age 71, male 81%) were treated between August 2008 and July 2009. Eighteen patients (58%) presented with functional disease and 13 patients (42%) presented with organic degenerative disease. A clip was successfully implanted in 19 patients (61%) and two clips in 12 patients (39%). The median device implantation time was 80 min. At 30 days, there was an intra-procedural cardiac tamponade and a non-cardiac death, resulting in a primary safety endpoint of 93.6% [95% confidence interval (CI) 77.2–98.9]. Acute device success was observed in 96.8% of patients (95% CI 81.5–99.8). Compared with baseline, left ventricular diameters, diastolic left ventricular volume, diastolic annular septal–lateral dimension, and mitral valve area significantly diminished at 30 days. Conclusion Our initial results with the MitraClip device in a very small number of patients indicate that percutaneous edge-to-edge mitral valve repair is feasible and may be accomplished with favourable short-term safety and efficacy results.