Methods: Between July 2012 and February 2013, 15 patients (12 males, 3 females; mean age 60.8±13.0 years; range 35 to 78 years) underwent MitraClip implantation in our clinic. All patients had symptomatic severe functional mitral regurgitation with high surgical risk or were judged to be inoperable by the cardiovascular surgeons.

Results: The success of the procedure was 93.33%. MitraClip was successfully implanted in all patients except one. Following the procedure, severity of the mitral regurgitation decreased by 2.1±0.5 grade on average. The mean NYHA functional capacity improved from 3.9±0.4 to 2.6±0.8 after one month during follow-up. Two patients (13.33%) died within the first month of follow-up due to noncardiac causes.

Conclusion: The MitraClip procedure can be performed safely to the symptomatic patients with severe functional mitral regurgitation who have otherwise high surgical risk or are judged to be inoperable. Our initial experience demonstrated acute echocardiographic and early clinical improvement in these patients.