Abstract
The chronic mitral insufficiency is one of the most frequent valve disorders with surgical indication, second only to the aortic valve stenosis. The mitral insufficiency management is therefore an important challenge for the National Health System. Dealing with a situation of scarce available resources and the broader diffusion of therapeutic alternatives, besides the reference gold standard (the surgical therapy), it becomes then important to find a balance between the pursuit of the diagnostic and therapeutic adequacy in each phase of the illness and the optimization of a course that takes patients' different characterization into account and that can meanwhile improve the life quality and the safety and efficacy profile of the healthcare assistance for mitral insufficiency. Concerning this, very interesting is an Italian patent registered by prof. Ottavio Alfieri, heart surgeon and Director of the Cardiac Surgery Unit of San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, which allows a remedial intervention in severe patients through the positioning on the valve of the MitraClip device, which has already been implanted in more than 43,000 patients worldwide.