Introduction. During the past five years the approach to procedural planning, operative techniques and perfusion strategies for minimally invasive mitral valve surgery (MIMVS) has evolved. With the goal to provide a maximum of patient safety the procedure has been modified according to individual patient characteristics and is largely based on preoperative imaging.

Areas covered. In this review article we describe the important factors in image based therapy planning and simulation, different access strategies, the operative key-steps, a rationale use of devices, and highlight a few future developments in the field of MIMVS. Published studies were identified through pearl growing, citation chasing, a search of PubMed using the systematic review methods filter, and the authors’ topic knowledge.

Expert opinion. With the help of expert teams including surgeons specialized in mitral repair, anesthesiologists and perfusionists a broad spectrum of mitral valve pathologies and related pathologies can be treated with excellent functional outcomes. Avoiding procedure related complications is the key for success for any MIMVS program.