Aortic Root Replacement with a Freestyle Stentless Porcine Valve.

Abstract

A 61-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital because of acute heart failure. The angiogram showed an enlarged aortic root and aortic incompetence which indicated annulo-aortic ectasia. An aortic valve-sparing operation was impossible because of severe prolapse of the aortic valve and the patient hesitated to have anti-coagulation therapy.Thus we performed aortic root replacement with the FreestyleTM stentless porcine valve (Medtronic Inc.). We plicated each original commissure in order to narrow the enlarged annulus and attach the Freestyle valve to the annulus directly by continuous suture. There was no significant difference in surgical technique and aortic cross-clamping time, compared to conventional operation. Aortic root replacement with the Freestyle valve seems an attractive option especially for elderly patients or cases in which of contraindicated for anti-coagulation therapy.