Percutaneous approaches to valvular disease.

Percutaneous Mitral Commissurotomy Rheumatic mitral stenosis continues to be endemic in developing countries, where mitral stenosis is the most frequent valve disease.1 Although the prevalence of rheumatic fever has greatly decreased in Western countries, it continues to represent an important clinical entity because of outmigration from developing countries. The figure given by the registry Euro Heart Survey, run in 2001, shows that mitral stenosis accounts for 12% of the single native valve disease.2 K. Inoue and colleagues3 were the first to perform percutaneous mitral commissurotomy (PMC) in 1982.3 The good results obtained by the technique have led to its increasing worldwide use.