Surgical and Transcatheter Management of MR: Competing or Complementary?

I want to congratulate the moderator and the panelist for an excellent presentation on the transcatheter future of mitral valve disease. Nevertheless I feel the title of the presentation is somehow off respect of the final message delivered. The panelists invited have clearly a practice more shifted toward transcatheter then surgical treatment of mitral valve disease and some of the sentences we heard in this video reflect this bias: "You do not need to resect any degenerative mitral valve" (What about SAM?) "Annulus dilatation happen always in a later stage of mitral valve disease" are clearly biased sentences to push and justify procedures (Neochords) that have not still proved any solid data. No mentioned about minimally invasive surgical repair and the importance of long term solid data. Finally the fact that we are pushed by the patients, should not be an excuses to accept moderate results or offer lower long term benefits. The push of industry should not unfocused our responsibility toward patients. For the next panel discussion please invite some surgeons actively involved in minimally invasive and open surgery to have a more vibrant and open minded discussion. Kudo to all of you!