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Aortic Stenosis Indicator Jet velocity (m/s) Mean gradient (mm Hg)* Valve area (cm2) Valve area index (cm2/m2) Mild Less than 3.0 Less than 25 Greater than 1.5 Moderate 3.0-4.0 25-40 1.0-1.5 Severe Greater than 4.0 Greater than 40 Less than 1.0 Less than 0.6
Aortic Regurgitation
Mild Qualitative Angiographic grade Color Doppler jet 1+ 2+ 3-4+ Moderate Severe
Greater than mild but Central jet, width no signs of severe greater than 65% AR LVOT
0.3-0.6
Less than 30
30-59
Greater than or equal to 60 Greater than or equal to 50 Greater than or equal to 0.30
Less than 30
30-49 0.10-0.29
Regurgitant orifice Less than 0.10 area (cm2) Additional Essential Criteria
Increased
Disease
Severe AR Symptomatic patients (dyspnoea, NYHA class II, III, IV or angina) Asymptomatic patients with resting LVEF 50% Patients undergoing CABG or surgery of ascending aorta, or on another valve Asymptomatic patients with resting LVEF .50% with severe LV dilatation: End-diastolic dimension .70 mm or ESD .50 mm (or .25 mm/m2 BSA) Whatever the severity of AR Patients who have aortic root disease with maximal aortic diameter 45 mm for patients with Marfans syndrome 50 mm for patients with bicuspid valves 55 mm for other patients
Class
IB
IB
IC
IIaC IIaC
IC IIaC IIaC
Patients with severe AS and any symptoms Patients with severe AS undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery, surgery of the ascending aorta, or on another valve Asymptomatic patients with severe AS and systolic LV dysfunction (LVEF ,50%) unless due to other cause Asymptomatic patients with severe AS and abnormal exercise test showing symptoms on exercise Asymptomatic patients with severe AS and abnormal exercise test showing fall in blood pressure below baseline Patients with moderate AS undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery, surgery of the ascending aorta or another valve Asymptomatic patients with severe AS and moderate-to-severe valve calcification, and a rate of peak velocity progression 0.3 m/s per year AS with low gradient (,40 mmHg) and LV dysfunction with contractile reserve Asymptomatic patients with severe AS and abnormal exercise test showing complex ventricular arrhythmias Asymptomatic patients with severe AS and excessive LV hypertrophy (15 mm) unless this is due to hypertension AS with low gradient (,40 mmHg) and LV dysfunction without contractile reserve
IB
IC
IC IC IIaC IIaC IIaC IIaC IIbC IIbC IIbC
Before valve surgery in patients with severe VHD and any of the following:
History of coronary artery disease Suspected myocardial ischemia LV systolic dysfunction In men aged over 40 and post-menopausal women 1 Cardiovascular risk factor When coronary artery disease is suspected to be the cause of severe MR (ischaemic MR) European Heart Journal (2007) 28, 230268 doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehl428
Class 1C
Class 1C
Mechanical valves Composed of carbon, or occasionally metal alloys, and are classified according to their structure into caged-ball and tilting-disk valves, which may be single or bi-leaflet.
Examples of replacement aortic valves: a) shows an aortic homograft, b) and c) show a xenograft, d) shows a ball and cage valve, e) shows a tilting-disk valve, f) shows a bileaflet valve
Mechanical Valves
Mechanical valves are durable, lasting - with the exception of a few rare technical failures - for 20 to 30 years. Their main drawbacks include high transvalvular pressure gradients in the smaller sizes, an abnormal haemodynamic profile, thrombogenicity, infection rates, and haemolysis. A significant minority of patients find that the noise of the functioning mechanical valve is their greatest drawback.
Khan SS, Trento A, DeRobertis M, et al: Twenty-year comparison of tissue and mechanical valve replacement. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2001; 122:257
Significant Failures
Mechanical
Bjork-Shiley Duromedics
Abrams Valve
Tissue Valves
Some 10-20% of homograft and 30% of xenograft valve replacements fail within 10-15 years of implantation and require replacement. Tissue valves last longer in the elderly population because the haemodynamic demands on the valve are less: the freedom from operation for homograft valve failure is 47% in patients aged 0-20 years, 85% in the 21-60 years age group, and 94% in patients aged over 60 years of age. Tissue valves last much longer in the aortic position compared to the mitral (the mitral valve must remain closed against peak ventricular systolic pressures, whereas the aortic valve opens passively during ventricular systole).
Pregnant women have an increased risk of prosthetic valve-related thromboembolic complications and adequate anticoagulant therapy is particularly important in this group if a mechanical valve has been implanted. Warfarin is contraindicated during the first trimester as it is teratogenic - twicedaily subcutaneous heparin or intravenous heparin should be administered instead of warfarin from initial attempts to conceive up until either the beginning of the second trimester or until delivery.
The understandable preference of many women is, therefore, for a bioprosthetic valve. Where the expertise is available, a homograft, which offers the longest lifespan, may be the preferred option.
Freedom from all valve-related complications over 20 years. Note that in the first 10-year period of follow-up, complications related to mechanical valves exceeded those of tissue valves. The lines cross at approximately 10 years, and over the following period, complications from tissue valves were more frequent than those from mechanical valves.
Khan SS, Trento A, DeRobertis M, et al: Twenty-year comparison of tissue and mechanical valve replacement. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2001; 122:257
Later valves
Tissue engineering (composite valves / muscle bar) Zero pressure fixation Anti-calcification remedies Blue valves (toluidine blue)
Recent Valves
Sorin Valves (amino acids)
Dura Mater abandoned Fascia Lata abandoned Ionescu-Shiley abandoned Autogenics - abandoned
Mechanism of failure
Biological gradual failure Mechanical catastrophic
Homografts
Homografts carry a small risk of infection linked to donor and storage mechanisms, although this is offset many times over by their low susceptibility to post-operative prosthetic endocarditis. As a result, these are the valve replacement of choice in fulminant bacterial endocarditis. The increased longevity and reduced incidence of prosthetic endocarditis in homografts compared to xenograft valves begs the question of why they are not more frequently used. Harvesting, selecting and preparing homografts requires a degree of expertise and resources that are not available to many centres. Implantation is technically more demanding, requiring experience in positioning the homograft in the correct anatomical position, dissecting out the coronary ostia and re-implanting them, and additional suture lines. All of these carry an increased risk of post-operative bleeding and prolong the time for which the patient is on bypass, leading to an increased post-operative incidence of renal failure, pulmonary dysfunction, myocardial dysfunction and neurological sequelae. In inexperienced hands, early and late complications render this a less favourable option.
Pulmonary Autograft Using the patient's own pulmonary valve to replace the aortic valve is known as the Ross procedure, after Sir Donald Ross, the British surgeon who pioneered its use. The pulmonary valve is replaced with a pulmonary homograft, which has a life expectancy of 20-30 years.
The patient's own pulmonary valve in the aortic position has a similar life expectancy, is resistant to infection and does not warrant formal anticoagulation.
The drawbacks are primarily related to the technical difficulty of both procedure and reoperation.
Ross procedure
Operative Risk
The operative mortality associated with aortic valve replacement varies between 2% for an otherwise fit patient in the elective setting, to over 30% for a combined or emergency procedure in a patient with multiple co-morbidity. The EuroSCORE system is one of a number of scoring systems derived from studies of large populations of patients. With the knowledge of 12 clinical variables such as age, sex, serum creatinine and left ventricular dysfunction, a percentage operative risk can be quoted for that patient, which has been shown to be accurate in all but the highest risk cases where mortality is generally underestimated. The best operative mortality for aortic stenosis according to EuroSCORE would be approximately 3%. UK registry data give the mortality for isolated aortic valve replacement at 2.2% for mechanical valves, 4% for bioprosthetic valves and 5% for homograft replacement. This may reflect the higher proportion of young, low-risk patients undergoing mechanical valve replacement. Surgeon-specific data in the UK suggest that variability between individual surgeons accounts for less than 0.4%. The operative risk of a mechanical valve replacement is similar to that for a tissue valve. The Ross procedure carries an increased risk of up to 7.4%. It is also apparent from EuroSCORE that concomitant coronary artery bypass grafting caries a substantial additional risk.
Post-operative complication
The risk of stroke (because of emboli from the calcified valve, the aortic cannulation site, hypoperfusion or haemorrhage) is 3% in patients without other risk factors for cerebrovascular events. In addition to the problems with post-operative management described above, patients are warned that aortic valve replacement carries a risk of conduction abnormalities requiring antidysrhythmics, or occasionally permanent pacemaker insertion. The other main peri-operative complications are - as for any open heart surgery - chest infection, pleural effusion, post-operative haemorrhage requiring resternotomy, wound infection which may require further surgery, and acute renal failure.
Small annulus
Good exposure from retraction sutures Position light and table Enthusiastic excision / decalcification Do not oversize valve Consider supra-annular placement Do NOT use everting mattress sutures (Root enlargement)
Aortic Root Enlargement Procedures-contd The Nicks operation involves extending the aortotomy into the posterior commissure. The incision enters the interleaflet triangle. The loose tissues of the triangle separate readily so that the annulus may enlarge sufficiently without incision of the anterior leaflet of the mitral valve or entering the left atrium. A prosthetic patch is placed into the posterior commissure and the noncoronary sinus to accommodate a prosthesis perhaps 2 or 3 mm larger than the original annulus. When enlargement more than 2 or 3 mm is required, it is necessary to extend the incision across the mitral annulus into the anterior leaflet of the mitral valve to allow the tissues to separate further at the annulus. A prosthetic patch is used to close the defect and enlarge the left ventricular outflow tract. The patch is attached to the anterior leaflet of the mitral valve with interrupted stitches. While it is tempting to use a simple running stitch, the interrupted stitch method distributes suture tension more evenly in order to prevent dehiscence of the patch from leaflet tissues A larger prosthetic valve may then be accommodated in the left ventricular outflow tract.
Unlike traditional heart valve replacements, the Perceval S is selfanchoring, which means that it does not need to be sutured into place. Because no sutures are required, using the Perceval S results in reduced procedure time for aortic valve replacements.
Result of TAVI
In high-risk patients with severe aortic stenosis, transcatheter and surgical procedures for aortic-valve replacement had similar rates of survival at 1 year, although there were important differences in risks associated with the procedure. The transcatheter procedure was associated with a higher risk of stroke than the surgical replacement (5.5% vs. 2.4% after 30 days; 8.3% vs. 4.3% after 1 year). In 2010 good results (20% better 1 year survival) were reported from a US trial on 358 patients. The procedure was called transcatheter aorticvalve implantation (TAVI) and implanted cow heart valves.
Schaff, Hartzell V. (June 2, 2011). Transcatheter aortic valve implantation-at what price? N Engl J Med 364: 22562258.
TAVI- SAPIEN device (a balloon-expandable tubular metal stent with a tri-leaflet valve fashioned out of bovine percardium mounted within).
In order to perform this operation, the cusps must be thin and flexible without calcifications.
Most repairs result in downsizing the effective orifice area in order to increase coaptation with the available cusp area. There is a resultant increase in aortic valve gradient and this must be anticipated when evaluating patients preoperatively. The decision to repair an aortic valve is made by weighing the risk of repair failure versus the benefit of avoidance of oral anticoagulation therapy.
Annular Dilation 1. This type of AR is caused by a dilated aortic annulus resulting in a sagging of the belly of the cusp resulting in lack of central cusp apposition. Reduction annuloplasty corrects the problem by increasing the surface area of cusp coaptation. 2. The subcommissural triangles are closed by horizontal mattress sutures (4-0 polypropylene) reinforced with teflon pledgets 3. Dilators can be used to assess the annulus diameter following commissural plication. 4. The sinotubular junction is often slightly dilated in these patients. This splaying outwardly of the commissural posts contributes to central AR. Repair requires either plication above the commissures or circumferential downsizing of the sinotubular junction by replacing an enlarged ascending aorta with an appropriately sized Dacron tube graft. This tube graft diameter should be 10-15% smaller than the measured annular diameter.
Intraoperative photograph prior to repair. Note: loss of cusp coaptation. The pledgeted sutures are stay sutures for improved exposure.
Bicuspid Aortic Valve 1. This type of AR results from the prolapse of the conjoint cusp. The usual conjoint cusp is a fusion of the right and left coronary cusps. The goal of the correction is to shorten the redundant conjoint cusp thus elevating the free margin of the cusp to coapt with the other non-prolapsing cusp. 2. The redundant free margin in triangularly resected in the central fused raphe portion. The resection is not continued to the annulus. The apex of the triangle is ended midway to the annulus where the valve cusp tissue remains thickened. 3. The cut edges of the cusp are reapproximated using 5-0 or 6-0 polypropylene suture in an interrupted fashion. 4. Often the raphe is tethered to the aortic wall by a residual commissure. This band of tissue can tether the conjoint cusp away from the center of the aortic orifice. The band should be cut releasing the central portion of the conjoint cusp and deepening the belly of the cusp. The cut to sever the tethering raphe band can be carried into the aortic wall to avoid perforating the thin portion of the cusp where it attaches to the adjacent annulus. 5. Occasionally, the non-conjoint cusp requires slight shortening with a plication suture (6-0 polypropylene suture) to adjust it to the newly repaired conjoint cusp. 6. The two subcommissural triangles are then closed as previously described.
Illustration demonstrating bicuspid valve with conjoint cusp prolapse and subsequent shortening.
Intraoperative photograph after resection of a central triangle of redundant prolapsing conjoint cusp. The first interrupted suture reapproximating the cut edges of the cusp is being placed.
Intraoperative photograph demonstrating the completed interrupted sutureline. The raphe has been resected.
Intraoperative photograph demonstrating completed repair, shortened cusp and commissuroplasty at each commissure.
Cusp Prolapse in Tricuspid Valve 1. This type of AR is caused by the prolapse of one or more cusps. The free margin is elongated. This can occur by rupture of a small fenestration. The goal of this repair is to shorten the free margin to meet the other cusps. 2. There are different ways to repair this defect: a. As described by Trusler, the prolapsed cusp can be plicated near the commissure with 5/0 polypropylene suture. b. The prolapsed cusp can be resuspended by performing a limited triangular resection in the center of the cusp with reapproximation of the cut edges of the cusp with interrupted 6-0 polypropylene sutures. c. The free edge can be shortened by weaving a 5-0 PTFE suture along the free edge of the cusp and anchoring it to the commissure. The three subcommissural triangles are then closed as previously described.
Intraoperative photograph demonstrating completed repair of cusp prolapse in tricuspid valve. Repair was performed by plicating prolapsed cusp and pledgeted commissuroplasty. Note: 6-0 polypropylene plication suture next to the node of Arantis.
Cusp Perforation
1. This type of AR is caused by infective endocarditis or iatrogenic perforation. The goal of this repair is to patch the defect in the cusp. 2. An autologous pericardial patch is prepared and used to cover the defect with either running or interrupted 6-0 polypropylene suture. Avoid the urge to close this defect primarily. This results in retraction of the free margin and loss of coaptation.
Intraoperative photograph following patch repair of cusp perforation with non-fixed autologous pericardium.
Concluding Tips
Saline can be used to fill the cusps to estimate apposition of the cusps. 1. The aortotomy is closed with a running 4-0 polypropylene suture over and over in a double layer with Teflon felt pledgets at both ends to buttress the suture line. In the case of complete transection of the aorta a continuous running 4-0 polypropylene suture is used. The cross clamp is removed. The heart is de-aired and the patient weaned from cardiopulmonary bypass. 2. Intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography is used to assess the adequacy of the repair.
Result of aortic valve repair- subvalvular circular annuloplasty Between January 1994 and June 2001, aortic valve repair was performed in 40 patients (eight females, 32 males; mean age 61.0 10.5 years) of this type. Survival was 94.9% at one year and 82.6% at five years. The fiveyear reoperation-free rate was 87%.
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