Standards defining a ‘Heart Valve Centre’: ESC Working Group on Valvular Heart Disease and European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery Viewpoint

Early- and Long-Term Outcomes of Mitral Valve Repair in a Low-Volume Centre in the Caribbean

“…Since then, the concept of centres of excellence have evolved to set the standards for mitral valve repair. These criteria include high mitral valve repair volume, appropriate peri-procedural imaging capabilities and willingness to provide data regarding expected outcomes based on the centre’s recent experience, including repair, mortality and stroke rates, and repair durability [ 7 , 8 ] .…”

Valve disease and non-cardiac surgery

“…There is a recognition that specialist heart valve clinics are now the best-practice setting for care7 44 45 but these are not universal 46. It may be appropriate to refer patients with valve disease to a Heart Valve Centre45 for high-risk non-cardiac surgery.…”

The central role of the cardiac imager in heart valve disease

“…It depends also on local expertise in surgical techniques and in interventional cardiology approaches. In this review, we will focus on the imaging and clinical aspects, which have extremely strong interdependencies, together with interactions with surgical and interventional expertise (1, 2, 3).…”