The introduction of valve replacement surgery in the early 1960s has dramatically improved the outcome of patients with valvular heart disease. Approximately 90 000 valve substitutes are now implanted in the United States and 280 000 worldwide each year; approximately half are mechanical valves and half are bioprosthetic valves. Despite the marked improvements in prosthetic valve design and sur...

factor to be considered when determining patient suitability for transcatheter implantation. Variables such as calcium quantity and distribution, the width of the sinuses of Valsalva, outflow tract diameter or computed tomography-measured annulus diameter (maximum annulus diameter was 23.9 mm) must also be analyzed. Since percutaneous implantation techniques began to be used for aortic valves, ...

This report deals with a rare complication of disc-valve prosthesis in the mitral area. A significant disc poppet and struts destruction of mitral BeaU valve prostheses occurred 20 and 17 months after implantation. The resulting valve incompetence in the first case contributed to the death of the patient. The durability of Teflon prosthetic valves appears to be in question and this type of valv...

Introduction: Rheumatic heart disease still remains one of the leading causes of congestive heart failure and death owing to valvular pathologies, in developing countries. Valve replacement still remains the treatment of choice in such patients.The aim of this study wasto analyze the postoperative outcome of  double valve replacement (Mitral and Aortic ) in patients of rheumatic heart disease. ...

OBJECTIVE The approval of a heart valve for the European market takes place in accordance with European and international standards. A new version of the EN Standards was published in June 2006, which responded to different technical innovations in the area of heart valve technology. This work outlines the differences between the new EN ISO 5840 (2005) and the old EN 12006-1 (1999). METHODS W...

BACKGROUND Percutaneous aortic valve implantation by an antegrade transvenous approach has been described but is problematic. Retrograde prosthetic aortic valve implantation via the femoral artery has potential advantages. Percutaneous prosthetic aortic valve implantation via the femoral arterial approach is described and the initial experience reported. METHODS AND RESULTS The valve prosthes...

A 76-year old female, was admitted in our cardiac surgery clinic to perform surgical aortic valve replacement due to a severe aortic regurgitation with symptoms of congestive heart failure. Her past medical history included moderately impaired renal function (GFR 48 mL/min) and arterial hypertension.  The thoracic-CT scan revealed a serious calcification of the entire thoracic aorta (Figure 1)...

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...

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation, as well as interventional mitral valve repair, offer reasonable therapeutic options for high-risk surgical patients. We report a rare case of early post-interventional aortic valve prosthesis migration to the left ventricular outflow tract, with paravalvular leakage and causing severe mitral valve regurgitation. Initial successful interventional mitral v...

We describe a case of very late transcatheter heart valve (THV) thrombosis of a first-generation SAPIEN prosthesis (Edwards Lifesciences, Irvine, CA) implanted in a 64-year-old woman with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis. More than 54 mo after implantation, she presented with severe symptomatic prosthesis dysfunction (stenosis) which was successfully treated with oral anticoagulation. To our ...