In a study on 107 patients after MV repair for degenerative disease, Mesana et al. [5] suggested that full rings may be associated with higher postrepair gradients when compared to partial bands. Their results need to be interpreted with caution as the Duran ring (Medtronic Inc., Minneapolis, MN, USA), notoriously prone to significant pannus formation [11, 12], was used in most patients who underwent full ring implantation. As MV gradients were measured several years after the initial operation, the high gradients observed in this group are most likely due to pannus formation and not the type of annuloplasty device implanted. Murashita et al. [13] explored postrepair gradients in 1147 patients after MV repair for degenerative disease. In most patients, a standard 63 mm flexible band was implanted, irrespective of annular perimeter length or anterior leaflet size. In the first median follow-up period (124.5 days after operation), a mean gradient of 3.7 ± 1.6 mmHg was reported that declined to a mean gradient of 3.3 ± 1.8 mmHg in the second median follow-up period (600 days after operation). The gradients in the first median follow-up period seem somehow higher than early postrepair gradients observed in our population. On longitudinal analysis, a decline similar to the one observed by Murashita et al. was also observed in our population. While clearly limited, amongst others, by the unadjusted differences in patient populations, such observations challenge the alleged superiority of partial bands in terms of postrepair gradients. On the other side, excessive shortening of the posterior annular perimeter (resulting from downsizing described by the authors) is bound to have resulted in smaller MV areas than would have been achieved with a true-sized ring.