AIMS Secondary involvement of the mitral valve is well documented in primary aortic valve endocarditis. A poorly considered, but probably important causative mechanism, involving both left-sided valves, is 'mitral kissing vegetation'. This results from large aortic vegetations prolapsing into the left ventricular outflow tract and making contact with the ventricular aspect of the anterior mitra...

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation is increasingly being used to treat severe aortic stenosis in patients with high operative risk. In an aging population the incidence of aortic stenosis is rising, and increasing numbers of elderly patients are undergoing aortic valve replacement with bioprosthetic valves. Therefore, there is a corresponding increase in prosthetic degeneration. This prese...

Cardiovascular involvement in cases of Behcet's disease is a rare but life-threatening condition, and prosthetic valve detachment is a frequent and serious complication attributable to Behcet's disease following the surgical repair of aortic regurgitation. We report the case of a patient with Behcet's disease presenting with contained aortic rupture around the aortic root. The patient had previ...

The increasing incidence of aortic stenosis and greater co-morbidities and risk profiles of the contemporary patient population has driven the development of minimally invasive aortic valve surgery and percutaneous transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) techniques to reduce surgical trauma. Recent technological developments have led to an alternative minimally invasive option which avoi...

The association of a bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) with abnormalities of the proximal thoracic aorta, including dilatation, aneurysm and dissection, has been previously described, leading to the hypothesis of a common underlying developmental defect involving the aortic valve and the aortic wall. Consequently, any patient with BAV should receive a careful assessment not only of the valve function...

Surgical repair of the tetralogy of Fallot is one of the most successful operations in the treatment of congenital heart diseases. We report the case of a 65-year-old man who had an aortic valve replacement at the time of complete repair of the tetralogy of Fallot at the age of forty-three. He subsequently had progressive aortic root and ascending aorta dilation to 9 cm. The aortic root and asc...

Aortic dissection (AD) in patient with prostetic aortic valve is a rare but potentially fatal complication. Predictors of the occurrence of AD after aortic valve replacement (AVR) include fragility and thinning of the ascending aorta, aortic dilatation, aortic regurgitation (AR) and high blood pressure before AVR operation. AD is usually symptomatic, but rarely asymptomatic.We presented a case ...

We describe a modified valve-sparing aortic root replacement technique for acute type A aortic dissection. After the normal root geometry was restored by removing blood and clots in the proximal false lumen and the valve insufficiency was corrected by simple resuspension of the aortic commissures, three teardrop-shaped patches were sutured inside the sinuses as neointima and then in situ corona...

OBJECTIVE To assess the long term prognostic significance of aortic valve ring abscess in patients with aortic endocarditis. PATIENTS A consecutive series of 75 patients who had surgery for aortic infective endocarditis between 1981 and 1989; 35 had aortic ring abscesses (group 1) and 40 did not (group 2). Mean age did not differ between the two groups. Prosthetic valve endocarditis was prese...

The bicuspid aortic valve is a common congenital cardiac anomaly, having an incidence in the general population of 0.9% to 2.0% and a frequency of 54% in all patients aged >15 years with valvular aortic stenosis. In most cases it remains undetected until infective endocarditis or calcification supervenes. The bicuspid aortic valve may function normally throughout life, may develop progressive c...