American College of Cardiology (ACC) issued the updated expert consensus decision pathway on the management of mitral regurgitation in April 2020. The whole process in caring patients with mitral valve regurgitation from patient evaluation to treatment choice was discussed in the consensus. The main change from the 2017 version is the confirmation of the effect of transcatheter mitral valve repair on secondary mitral regurgitation. It standardized the process in this field. In this paper, we aimed to introduce the focus update of this consensus.
Artificial chord is a mature mitral valve repair technique, especially in adult mitral valve repair. It is still challenging to repair mitral valve in children with artificial chords because the quality of mitral valve is soft and immature. There are some differences in the methods of suture, the choice of suture size and the number of artificial chords. Although the artificial chords could not grow naturally, we found through the long-term research that most children did not have mitral valve restriction or even chords rupture due to itself can compensate through the growth of the flap and papillary muscle. This article summarizes the recent research progress on the treatment of mitral valve insufficiency in children with artificial chords, providing reference for clinical treatment.