Aortic valve translocation for severe prosthetic valve endocarditis: early results and long-term follow-up.
BACKGROUND
Surgical management of ventriculo-aortic disconnection and aortic root abscesses after prosthetic aortic valve endocarditis carries high mortality and morbidity. Initial experience with translocation of the aortic valve and distal coronary artery bypass grafting was disappointing in terms of short-term and long-term success in the few published reports. We describe a technique of translocation of the aortic valve into the ascending aorta with direct antegrade myocardial revascularization.


METHODS
Between 1980 and 1992, we included 21 patients and evaluated their long-term outcome. The surgical technique included extracting the aortic valve prosthesis, resecting all infected tissue, restoring the left ventricular outflow tract, and translocating the aortic valve into the ascending aorta, associated with myocardial revascularization of the left main trunk and the proximal right coronary artery.


RESULTS
All patients required emergency surgery: 15 patients were in severe congestive heart failure, 3 patients were in cardiogenic shock, and 3 patients had multiple neurologic and peripheral signs of distal embolization. Fifteen patients had active prosthetic valve endocarditis. Intraoperative findings dictated the translocation. The overall hospital mortality was 14%. None of the 18 hospital survivors had prosthetic aortic valve endocarditis recurrence. All patients were observed from 12 to 22 years, are alive, and have resumed normal activities.


CONCLUSIONS
In severe forms of prosthetic valve endocarditis, this technique provides a safe and reliable alternative to homograft replacement. The long-term results are satisfactory.
Nottin
Rémi
R
Department of Adult Cardiovascular Surgery, Marie-Lannelongue Hospital, Le Plessis-Robinson, France. rnottin@ccml.com
Al-Attar
Nawwar
N
Ramadan
Ramzi
R
Azmoun
Alexandre
A
Therasse
Alexis
A
Kortas
Chokri
C
Ly
Mohamedou
M
Bouchachi
Amir
A
Bourachot-Montantême
Marie-Laure
ML
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001021:Aortic Valve / Q000637:transplantation; D001022:Aortic Valve Insufficiency; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000145:classification; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass; D004696:Endocarditis / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D019918:Heart Valve Prosthesis Implantation / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000382:microbiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left