Mitral valve surgery after a failed MitraClip procedure

Abstract OBJECTIVES Among patients undergoing transcatheter mitral valve repair with the MitraClip device, a relevant proportion (2–6%) requires open mitral valve surgery within 1 year after unsuccessful clip implantation. The goal of this review is to pool data from different reports to provide a comprehensive overview of mitral valve surgery outcomes after the MitraClip procedure and estimate in-hospital and follow-up mortality. METHODS All published clinical studies reporting on surgical intervention for a failed MitraClip procedure were evaluated for inclusion in this meta-analysis. The primary study outcome was in-hospital mortality. Secondary outcomes were in-hospital adverse events and follow-up mortality. Pooled estimate rates and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of study outcomes were calculated using a DerSimionian–Laird binary random-effects model. To assess heterogeneity across studies, we used the Cochrane Q statistic to compute I2 values. RESULTS Overall, 20 reports were included, comprising 172 patients. Mean age was 70.5 years (95% CI 67.2–73.7 years). The underlying mitral valve disease was functional mitral regurgitation in 50% and degenerative mitral regurgitation in 49% of cases. The indication for surgery was persistent or recurrent mitral regurgitation (grade >2) in 93% of patients, whereas 6% of patients presented with mitral stenosis. At the time of the operation, 80% of patients presented in New York Heart Association functional class III–IV. Despite favourable intraoperative results, in-hospital mortality was 15%. The rate of periprocedural cerebrovascular accidents was 6%. At a mean follow-up of 12 months, all-cause death was 26.5%. Mitral valve replacement was most commonly required because the possibility of valve repair was jeopardized, likely due to severe valve injury after clip implantation. CONCLUSIONS Surgical intervention after failed transcatheter mitral valve intervention is burdened by high in-hospital and 1-year mortality, which reflects reflecting the high-risk baseline profile of the patients. Mitral valve replacement is usually required due to leaflet injury.