Early surgery for mitral regurgitation, before clinical triggers emerge, has best outcomes

Patients with mitral regurgitation face a dilemma of whether to undergo corrective surgery early, when they might have no or few symptoms, or wait until their condition worsens. Current guidelines allow for watchful waiting until certain symptoms appear that would then "trigger" the decision to proceed with surgery. The authors argue that these guidelines are based on relatively weak class C evidence from clinical experience that is now 20 to 30 years old, and surgical methods, including mitral ...