Emerging trends in heart valve engineering: Part III. Novel technologies for mitral valve repair and replacement.

In this portion of an extensive review of heart valve engineering, we focus on the current and emerging technologies and techniques to repair or replace the mitral valve. We begin with a discussion of the currently available mechanical and bioprosthetic mitral valves followed by the rationale and limitations of current surgical mitral annuloplasty methods; a discussion of the technique of neo-chordae fabrication and implantation; a review the procedures and clinical results for catheter-based mitral leaflet repair; a highlight of the motivation for and limitations of catheter-based annular reduction therapies; and introduce the early generation devices for catheter-based mitral valve replacement.