DIFFICULT MITRAL VALVULOPLASTY - AN OVER-THE-WIRE MODIFICATION OF INOUE TECHNIQUE

Failure to cross the mitral valve remains an important cause of the te chnical failure in performing mitral val valuloplasty with the Inoue t echnique, especially during initial experience of the operator. We rep ort two such cases where conventional methods failed and an ''over the wire'' modification of the Inoue technique had to be utilized. This p articular modification can be beneficial in the rare cases where negot iating the Inoue balloon across the mitral valve is particularly diffi cult.