Comparison of mitral valve area results of balloon mitral valvotomy using the inoue and double balloon techniques

Abstract

Inoue pioneered the mitral balloon valvotomy technique using his homemade balloon catheter as a nonsurgical therapeutic alternative to the surgical treatment of mitral stenosis. 1 Because Inoue's balloon catheter was not commercially available at the time, Zaibag et al 2 developed the principal of the double balloon technique. 12 The double balloon technique has prevailed to date since the mitral valve areas achieved are excellent and are maintained at long-term follow-up. 2–4 Although the mechanism of mitral valve dilatation for both the Inoue and the double balloon technique are similar, 1–5 i.e., commissural splitting, no comparative clinical data have been reported. Previous published series include noncomparable groups of patients, with different ages and particularly different mitral valve and subvalvular anatomy. 1–4 We selected a homogenous, young population of patients with severe rheumatic mitral stenosis; both groups of patients had comparable mitral valve and subvalvular anatomy and age. The objective of the study was to compare the mitral valve areas and the total procedure times achieved, using the 2 different techniques.