title: Suspension string: a new method of aortic valvuloplasty for aortic insufficiency and ventricular septal defect.
abstract: In a 4-year-old boy with ventricular septal defect, severe aortic insufficiency, and mild infundibular stenosis, a new method was used to reconstruct the prolapsed aortic cusp. Two ends of a pledged stitch were passed through the aorta at each side of the right, noncoronary commissure and then through another pledget, and were then tied repeatedly in a row. The length of the row of knots was equal to that of the free edge of left coronary or noncoronary leaflet. The remainder of the stitch was passed through a pledget and then the aortic wall at each side of the left and right coronary commissure to the extraaortic wall pledget and were tied. A suspension string was formed by the row of knots and supported by a Teflon (Dupont Teflon, Wilmington, DE) felt pledget sandwich at each of two commissures. The free margin of the prolapsed cusp was attached to the suspension string by a continuous suture. The concomitant anomalies were corrected. The result was satisfactory.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Cardiovascular Institute, Fu Wai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Science, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Zhixiong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D001021:Aortic Valve / Q000601:surgery / Q000648:ultrastructure; D001022:Aortic Valve Insufficiency / Q000601:surgery*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004867:Equipment Design; D006345:Heart Septal Defects, Ventricular / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011662:Pulmonary Subvalvular Stenosis / Q000601:surgery; D013536:Suture Techniques