Aortic valve disease is a prevalent disorder that affects approximately 2% of the general adult population. Surgical aortic valve replacement is the gold standard treatment for symptomatic patients. This treatment has demonstrably proven to be both safe and effective. Over the last few decades, in an attempt to reduce surgical trauma, different minimally invasive approaches for aortic valve rep...

OBJECTIVE Aortic valve replacement has been approached by standard sternotomy. We described a technique of aortic valve replacement where the aortic valve is exposed through a hemi-sternotomy. Good exposure is obtained for aortic valve surgery with standard aortic and right atrial cannulation to establish cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). METHODS From October 1996 to April 1997, 19 consecutive ao...

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of coronary artery disease in patients undergoing valve surgery at a tertiary care cardiac centre. METHODS The medical records of 144 consecutive patients who underwent mitral, aortic or dual (mitral and aortic) valve replacement surgery at the Tabba Heart Institue between January 2006 to December 2008 were retrospectively reviewed. All patients underwent...

We read with a great interest the manuscript by Benedik et al. [1] published in the recent issue of European Journal of CardioThoracic Surgery. Benedik et al. should be congratulated for prospectively addressing the issue of proximal aortic disease in aortic valve stenosis vs aortic valve insufficiency in a reasonable number of consecutively enrolled patients. The background of this study is of...

conclusions high risk patients needing avr are optimal candidates for transcatheter aortic valve implantation. tavi is a valuable solution for high risk patients needing avr. obtained results are comparable to results in transthoracic avr in standard candidates for aortic valve implantation. background transcatheter aortic valve implantation (tavi) has emerged as an alternative treatment to cla...

Degenerative aortic valve stenosis (AS) is the most common valvular heart disease. About two-thirds of all valve operations are for aortic valve replacement (AVR). After onset of symptoms (angina, syncope or heart failure) severe aortic stenosis has a poor prognosis with an average survival of two or three years and a high risk of sudden death. According to the ACC/AHA and the European Society ...

INTRODUCTION Transcatheter aortic valve implantation is a promising alternative to high risk surgical aortic valve replacement. The procedure is mainly indicated in patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis who cannot undergo surgery or who are at very high surgical risk. AIM Description early results of our single-center experience with balloon expandable aortic valve implantation. ...

Emergent cardiac surgery during transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI): a weighted meta-analysis of 9,251 patients from 46 studies. EuroIntervention 2013;8:1072–80. [4] Vahanian A, Alfieri O, Andreotti F, Antunes MJ, Baron-Esquivias G, Baumgartner H et al. Guidelines on the management of valvular heart disease (version 2012): The Joint Task Force on the Management of Valvular Heart Dise...

Surgical replacement of the aortic valve is the standard therapy for severe aortic valve stenosis. However, it is generally associated with increased mortality and morbidities in older individuals. Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is a less invasive procedure and has shown similar clinical outcomes as surgical treatment in elderly patients at high risk for conventional surgery. In...

Quadricuspid aortic valve (QAV) is a rare congenital aortic valve abnormality. It is less common as compared to bicuspid or unicuspid aortic valve abnormality. QAV causes aortic regurgitation usually in the fifth to sixth decade of life. We present a rare case of a female patient with cryptogenic stroke due to a QAV and a patent foramen ovale (PFO). The patient underwent transcatheter closure o...