Survival rates with catheter-based mitral valve repair are comparable to classic surgery and better than conservative management in high-surgical-risk patients with severe mitral valve regurgitation, researchers reported.

Results from the first study to compare transcatheter mitral valve repair with surgery and medical management in high-risk patients showed similar survival at 1 year follow-up among mitral valve (MV) repair and surgery patients (85.8% and 85.2%, respectively) and poorer survival among conservatively treated patients (67.6%).

The same trend was seen in the second and third years of follow-up, with 62.3% of MV repair patients still living after 3 years, compared with 54.2% of conservatively treated patients, researchers Martin J. Swaans, MD, of St. Antonius Hospital, Nieuwegein, the Netherlands, and colleagues wrote in the journal JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions.

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