INTRODUCTION Transcatheter aortic valve implantation for severe symptomatic aortic stenosis in patients with a previous mitral valve prosthesis is technically challenging, and pre-procedural comprehensive assessment of these patients before transcatheter aortic valve implantation is vital for an uncomplicated and successful procedure. AIM We want to share our experience with transcatheter aor...

Aortic valve replacement with mechanical or biological prosthesis with extracorporeal circulation is the gold-standard for the treatment of calcific aortic stenosis. Although the results are excellent with the conventional approach some elderly patients, with multiple high-risk comorbid conditions, reoperations and severe left ventricular dysfunction have high surgical risk. During the last yea...

Interventional cardiologists have spent years working on and dreaming about transcatheter aortic valve implantation. In 20072008 we were privileged in Spain to use 2 of the most commonly-implanted devices at the time: the Cribier-Edwards aortic valve prosthesis and the CoreValve self-expanding prosthesis. These devices had successful initial results in highsurgical-risk patients with severe aor...

This case report describes a percutaneous aortic valve implantation with the Medtronic CoreValve selfexpanding valve prosthesis in a patient with severe aortic stenosis. The approach was made via the left subclavian artery because of the lack of femoral vessel access. The patient was a 78-year-old female with breathlessness on minimal effort, a recent hospitalisation due to pulmonary oedema, an...

We report a technique for the enlargement of a hypoplastic aortic root by an operation whereby the hypoplastic aortic root has been so enlarged by the insertion of a Dacron fabric gusset that it will accommodate a size 9A or larger Starr-Edwards prosthesis. Our experience in five patients is described. No matter what type of valve is used for replacement of a diseased aortic valve, and no matte...

Patients who underwent isolated aortic valve replacement could come to attention for new onset aortic disease or progression of borderline alterations not corrected at the first operation, especially in the subset of bicuspid valve disease. We describe our technique in redo operations for aortic root disease, using only a vascular graft and sparing the previously implanted valve prosthesis. In ...

BACKGROUND The outcome of aortic valve replacement in patients with severe aortic stenosis, low transvalvular gradient, and severe left ventricular dysfunction is not well known. METHODS AND RESULTS Between 1985 and 1995, 52 patients with left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) < or =35% and aortic stenosis with transvalvular mean gradient <30 mm Hg underwent aortic valve replacement. The mea...

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has evolved as a routine procedure to treat selected high-risk patients with severe aortic stenosis. The new J-Valve prosthesis is designed for antegrade transapical implantation, it is characterized by a porcine aortic prosthesis attaching to a self-expandable Nitinol stent. The key feature of the device are three U-shape anatomically oriented dev...

The clinical and investigatory findings in five instances of major detachment of an aortic valve prosthesis in four patients are described. This situation was associated with auscultatory and peripheral signs of aortic regurgitation and, in addition, a mid-diastolic murmur in the mitral area. From the haemodynamic and operative findings it was postulated that, in addition to severe aortic regur...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of the prosthesis type on early mortality and long-term survival after re-replacement of aortic valve prosthesis, especially in patients over 60 years old. METHODS Late outcome of 223 patients who underwent a reoperation on the aortic valve and received a mechanical (mechanical group) or biological (biological group) heart valve...