The evolution from surgery to percutaneous mitral valve interventions: the role of the edge-to-edge technique.

The edge-to-edge technique is a versatile procedure for mitral valve repair. Its technical simplicity has been the prerequisite for the development of a number of transcatheter technologies to perform percutaneous mitral valve repair. The evolution from a standard open heart surgical to percutaneous procedure involved the application of the technique in minimally invasive robotic surgery and direct access (transatrial) off-pump suture-based repair and finally in the fully percutaneous approach with either suture-based or device (clip)-based approach. The MitraClip (Abbott Vascular, Menlo Park, California) is currently available for clinical use in Europe, and it is mainly applied to treat high-risk patients with functional mitral regurgitation. A critical review of the surgical as well as the early percutaneous repair data is necessary to elucidate the clinical role and the potential for future developments of the edge-to-edge repair in the treatment of mitral regurgitation.