O ver the past 4 years, transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has transformed the cardiac care of patients in the United States with severe aortic stenosis (SAS). In September 2011, a balloon-expandable prosthesis (Sapien, Edwards Lifesciences, Irvine, California) received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the treatment of inoperable patients on the basis of a randomi...

Bicuspid aortic stenosis (BAS) has been excluded in clinical trials on transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) due to the presumed uneven expansion of the aortic prosthesis, leading to significant paravalvular regurgitation (PVR). There is no transcatheter heart valve (THV) commercially approved for treating BAS. The Lotus Valve System mitigates PVR by possessing an adaptive seal and bein...

BACKGROUND Accurate preoperative assessment of the aortic annulus dimension is crucial for successful transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). In this study we validated a new method using two-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (2D-TEE) for measurement of the aortic annulus prior to TAVI. METHODS We analysed 124 patients who underwent successful TAVI using a self-expandable p...

factor to be considered when determining patient suitability for transcatheter implantation. Variables such as calcium quantity and distribution, the width of the sinuses of Valsalva, outflow tract diameter or computed tomography-measured annulus diameter (maximum annulus diameter was 23.9 mm) must also be analyzed. Since percutaneous implantation techniques began to be used for aortic valves, ...

Prosthetic graft infections with mediastinitis following aortic surgery are rare, yet represent grave complications yielding high morbidity and mortality. We present the case of a 57-year-old female patient with past history of emergent surgery for iatrogenic Type A dissection treated by supracoronary ascending aortic replacement. Four months after the initial surgery, a sternal fistula had for...

Paravalvular aortic regurgitation (AR) negatively affects prognosis following transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). As transcatheter heart valves (THV) are anchored using a certain degree of oversizing at the level of the aortic annulus, incomplete stent frame expansion because of heavily annular calcifications, suboptimal placement of the prosthesis, and/or annulus-prosthesis size-mis...

up (up to eight years) was obtained in 153 patients (95%). A total of 34 patients (22%) died during the follow-up period. Including the hospital mortality, the actuarial su.vival rate of our patients with SmeloffCutter prosthesis was 0.69 after the fifth year and 0.611 after the eighth year of follow-up. This is similar to the actuarial survival rate of patients with Starr-Edwards prosthesis bu...

Traumatic rupture of the aortic isthmus is a rare lesion occurring in patients subjected to violent deceleration. Because of the forces involved, it is frequently associated with concomitant life-threatening injuries. The endovascular intervention has been described to be a feasible and efficient technique which may be proposed as a therapeutic option for patients with multiple traumas instead ...

Severe calcification of the ascending aorta (porcelain aorta) is a very difficult condition in cardiac surgery because of a high embolization potential during the process of cannulation, aortic cross-clamping and a particular difficulty to suture the proximal anastomosis. We described a case of a 68-year-old female referred to our Institute due to unstable angina. Further diagnostics revealed a...

In open vascular repair, when prolonged infrarenal aortic clamping can be expected, and collateral perfusion is reduced, the use of a temporary shunt may reduce the risk of ischemic complications. In a patient with Marfan's syndrome and aortic dissection who had developed infrarenal aneurysms, segmental arteries had been occluded by prior aortic surgery and collateral arteries in the anterior t...