Aortic valve replacement (AVR) improves survival in patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS). Following recent advances in Doppler echocardiography, detailed evaluation of results after AVR is now based not only on the degree of alleviation of symptoms but also the degree of functioning of the prosthetic valve and the heart after surgery. Selection of a prosthetic valve is now viewed as an imp...

The combination of coronary artery disease and its complications (ischemic mitral regurgitation etc.) with the aneurysm of the descending thoracic aorta is not a rare case. The single-stage correction of coronary/intracardiac/aortic lesions may be considered as a way of managing the combined patients. Simultaneous multi-vessel coronary artery bypass grafting, suture mitral annuloplasty and desc...

OBJECTIVE To determine postoperative and long-term outcome and assess the relevance of abdominal ultrasound (US) after surgery for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) or aortoiliac occlusive disease (AIOD). METHODS Records of 1704 consecutive patients having graft implantation from 1988 to 2000, either for AAA (n = 1144) or for AIOD (n = 560), were reviewed. In 2006, follow-up was 9180 patients-y...

BACKGROUND Prosthesis-patient mismatch (PPM) occurs when the effective orifice area (EOA) of the prosthesis being implanted is too small in relation to body size, thus causing abnormally high transvalvular pressure gradients. The objective of this study was to examine the midterm impact of PPM on overall mortality and cardiac events after aortic valve replacement in patients with pure aortic st...

Figure 1. A. Before transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI): abdominal aorta with extensive circumferential calcifications; B, C. After TAVI: fracture and vertical displacement of abdominal aorta wall with bilateral dissection traces; D, E. Transfemoral implantation of a covered metal stent across the fracture site and successful restoration of the aortic trajectory, without signs of res...

Thrombosis of mechanical heart valve prosthesis is a rare fatal complication after heart valve replacement. This report describes an old female patient with aortic prosthetic valve thrombosis who had a successful fibrinolytic treatment.

OBJECTIVE To analyze the short-term outcome of aortic root enlargement (ARE) using death and adverse events as end points. METHODS From January 1999 through December 2009, 3339 patients were subjected to aortic valve replacement (AVR). A total of 678 were considered to have small aortic roots (SARs) in which an aortic prosthesis size 21 mm or smaller was implanted. ARE using a bovine pericard...

Aims/Objectives This man 10 years ago underwent surgery for acute aortic dissection type Stanford A. During this surgery the ascending aorta including the aortic valve had been replaced. The regular follow-up by echocardiography was performed once a year. After 10 years without any problem, the patient began to suffer from atypical problems repeated respiratory infections and superior vena cava...

BACKGROUND We reviewed the long-term outcomes of aortic root replacement at Asan Medical Center and investigated the predictors affecting mortality. MATERIALS AND METHODS A retrospective analysis was performed on 225 consecutive adult patients undergoing aortic root replacement with mechanical conduits (n=169), porcine aortic root prosthesis (n=23), or aortic homografts (n=33) from January 19...