Between 1980 and 1993, 20 patients less than 1 year of age underwent operations for congenital mitral valve disease. Ten patients had congenital mitral incompetence and 10 had congenital mitral stenosis. Mean age was 6.6 +/- 3.4 months and mean weight was 5.6 +/- 1.5 kg. Atrioventricular canal defects, univentricular heart, class III/IV hypoplastic left heart syndrome, discordant atrioventricul...

We describe a woman with gestational age of 20 weeks, who was submitted to a complex procedure. She underwent replacement of the biological mitral and aortic valve, both by biological prosthesis, valvuloplasty of the tricuspid valve, as well as thrombectomy of the left atrium. Extracorporeal circulation (ECC) was used during 105 minutes. The patient was discharged from hospital in good health c...

BACKGROUND Several centers favor replacing a diseased native heart valve with a tissue rather than a mechanical prosthesis, even in younger adult patients. However, long-term data supporting this approach are lacking. We examined the survival implications of selecting a tissue versus a mechanical prosthesis at initial left-heart valve replacement in a cohort of adults <60 years of age who were ...

The surgical replacement of diseased heart valves is based on the premise that the prosthesis chosen to replace a stenotic or insufficient valve will have a beneficial impact on the patient’s heart function, taking into account the risks of surgery and the recognized complications of prosthetic heart valves. It is well established that mitral valve replacement (MVR) is associated with higher sh...

Heart valve replacement represents the most common surgical therapy for end-stage valvular heart diseases. One major drawback that all heart valve replacements have in common is the lack of growth, repair, and remodeling capability once implanted into the body. The emerging field of tissue engineering is focusing on the in-vitro generation of functional, living semilunar heart valve replacement...

The patient is a 75-year-old man with a history significant for hypertension and congestive heart failure who underwent a bioprosthetic aortic valve replacement secondary to acute onset of aortic insufficiency. Cultures of the native valve were positive for Staphylococcus epidermidis sensitive to nafcillin and intravenous cefazolin was initiated. On postoperative day 24, he developed acute deco...

Transcatheter cardiac interventions are a fast evolving field. The past decade has seen the development of transcatheter aortic valve replacement, transcatheter mitral valve repair and replacement, septal defect closure devices and left atrial appendage closure devices for thromboprophylaxis. More than ever, medical imaging is taking a central role in the care of patients with structural heart ...