Mitral regurgitation can occur in up to 50% of patients with ischemic heart disease and even mild ischemic mitral regurgitation (IMR) has been linked to increased long-term mortality. How best to treat IMR is controversial, in part, because of the fragility and complexity of the patients, difficulty of grading IMR, the variety of medical and surgical options, and lack of long-term quality studies. Noting that other guidelines generally do not focus on optimal surgical approaches to IMR, the AATS enlisted a group of experts to create a consensus document to provide clinicians with their recommendations based on their opinions and the best available evidence. The Guidelines are published in The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, the official publication of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS).
↧