[Coronary sinus devices for treatment of functional mitral valve regurgitation. Solution or dead end?].

In this article we review the currently available data on percutaneous mitral valve annulorrhaphy devices using the coronary sinus in patients with functional mitral valve regurgitation (MR). Of these devices the greatest clinical experience exists for the Carillon mitral contour system which has gained increasing application also outside trials in the last 2 years. The advantages include the ease of use with an effective reduction in functional MR and a subsequent improvement of echocardiographic and clinical parameters. A limitation is the compromise of flow in the circumflex artery in some patients especially with a crossing of the coronary sinus with this artery. Future investigations need to focus on the evaluation of this coronary sinus-based technology versus mitral valve clipping technology for the treatment of functional MR.