Congenital quadricuspid aortic valve is a rare cardiac anomaly. More than half of the patients with this abnormality will develop aortic insufficiency in adulthood. It is vital that patients with quadricuspid aortic valve who present with progressive aortic regurgitation undergo valve replacement or repair at appropriate time. Here, we present two cases of quadricuspid aortic valve. We first de...

Belcher, J. R. (1973). Thorax, 28, 608-612. Conservative approach to the treatment of mixed mitral valve disease. One hundred patients with mixed mitral valve disease have been treated with the 'stand-by' bypass principle. In 59 the valve was replaced; in 41 a closed transventricular valvotomy was done. The results in the two groups have been compared. The operative mortality for valvotomy was ...

OBJECTIVE Intermediate/long-term results after aortic valve replacement using bileaflet mechanical valve in children should be clarified as a standard of treatment of aortic valve disease in children. METHODS Forty-five patients aged under 15 years underwent 46 aortic valve replacements using bileaflet mechanical prosthetic valve. Patients' ages ranged from 1 to 15 years (9 years as a median ...

T ranscatheter MitraClip (Abbott Vascular, Santa Clara, California) implantation has emerged as the single catheter-based technique for mitral valve repair with global adoption. Worldwide, an estimated 25,000 patients have been treated with the MitraClip so far. Typically, the incidence of major stroke after surgical mitral valve repair or replacement is similar to what is seen after surgical a...

Calcific aortic stenosis is the number 1 cause for surgical valve replacement in the United States and Europe. In 2006, surgical valve replacement still remains the number 1 indication for the treatment of this disease process, as defined by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines for valvular heart disease by Bonow et al.1 This standard of care for patients wit...

OBJECTIVE Biological aortic valve conduits are rarely used because of the concern that possible structural valve deterioration would require complete conduit replacement in a technically demanding operation. The aim of the study was to evaluate the 10-year experience with complete aortic-root replacement using a modified composite graft in which biological valve prosthesis was located inside th...

We report the case of a 39-year-old man who underwent life-saving aortic valve replacement with a bioprosthesis for acute endocarditis while on the liver transplant waiting list, followed by successful transplantation and late valve re-replacement with a mechanical prosthesis, 10.8 years after primary valve surgery.

Rheumatoid aortic valve disease is uncommon. and there are few reports of valve replacement in this condition. Aortic valve replacement and partial pericardiectomy was performed in a patient with acute rheumatoid aortitis and aortic incompetence. Previous reports suggest that any patient with rheumatoid arthritis who develops cardiac symptoms should be carefully assessed for surgically treatabl...

Four cases of acute dysfunction of Starr-Edwards mitral prostheses are recorded. The patients presented with sudden dyspnoea 4 to 18 months after apparently successful mitral valve replacement. The prosthetic valve dysfunction was caused by thrombus on the bare metal cage of the prosthesis. No warning thromboembolic phenomena had been recorded. Urgent replacement of the valve resulted in the su...