Sutureless aortic valve replacement with concomitant valvular surgery

Abstract

Objectives: Sutureless aortic valve replacement (SU-AVR) is an alternative technique to standard aortic valve replacement. We evaluated our experience with the Perceval SU-AVR with concomitant mitral valve surgery, with or without tricuspid valve surgery, and aimed to discuss the technical considerations.

Methods: From January 2013 through June 2016, 30 patients with concomitant severe mitral valve disease, with or without tricuspid valve disease, underwent SU-AVR with the Perceval prosthesis in a single center.

Results: The mean age was 73.0 ± 6.6 years, ranging from 63 to 86 years, and 60% (n = 18) were male. Mean logistic EuroScore of the study cohort was 9.8 ± 4.6. Concomitant procedures consisted of mitral valve repair (n = 8, 26.6%), mitral valve replacement (n = 22, 73.3%), tricuspid valve repair (n = 18, 60%), tricuspid valve replacement (n = 2, 6.6%), and cryoablation for atrial fibrillation (n = 21, 70%). Median prosthesis size was 25 mm (large size). At 1 year, there were 2 deaths from noncardiac causes. One patient (3.3%) had third-degree atrioventricular block requiring permanent pacemaker implantation. Three patients (10%) had intraoperative supra-annular malpositioning of the aortic prosthesis, which was safely removed and reimplanted in all cases. Mean follow-up was 18 ± 4.5 for months (maximum 3 years). During the postoperative period, sinus rhythm restoration rate in patients who underwent the cryo-maze procedure was 76.1% (n = 16) at discharge. There was no structural valve deterioration or migration of the prosthesis at follow-up.

Conclusions: Perceval SU-AVR is a technically feasible and safe procedure in patients with severe aortic stenosis with good results even in the presence of multivalvular disease and atrial fibrillation surgery.

Keywords: elderly; mitral valve surgery; sutureless aortic valve replacement.