This protocol addresses rheumatic heart disease in the setting of severe isolated mitral stenosis — a distinct presentation in which advanced stenosis is confined to the mitral valve. This focused scenario requires a specific, evidence-guided approach that differs from mixed or multi-valve disease.
Severe isolated mitral stenosis carries an established, protocol-defined pathway. In symptomatic patients with this presentation, certain catheter-based interventional options offer a meaningful advantage over open surgery in terms of cost and procedural turnaround — making procedural selection a clinically significant decision.
Management centres on a specific catheter-based procedure that is recognised as the intervention of choice for eligible patients with isolated severe mitral stenosis. This is a procedural, not pharmacological, first-line approach.
The complete eligibility criteria, procedural pathway, and clinical decision algorithm are in the full protocol below.
DOI: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000000921
In symptomatic patients with severe isolated rheumatic MS, the low cost and rapid turnaround time associated with BMV compared with open heart surgery make it an attractive option.
The only proven effective treatment for MS is catheter or surgical intervention.
The exception is for isolated severe MS, for which BMV may be the procedure of choice.
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