Management of asymptomatic patients with severe mitral valve regurgitation is controversial—conservative surveillance and early mitral valve repair have both been advocated as reasonable approaches on the basis of divergent data. A new study by Kang et al. fuels this debate. However, careful assessment of the existing literature can provide insight into the optimal care of this population of patients.
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D. H. Adams has acted as a consultant for and received royalties for inventions from Edwards Life Sciences, Inc. A. C. Anyanwu declared no competing interests.
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Adams, D., Anyanwu, A. Asymptomatic mitral regurgitation: does surgery save lives?. Nat Rev Cardiol 6, 330–332 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2009.50
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2009.50
