title: Revival of continuous suture technique in aortic valve replacement in patient with aortic valve stenosis: a novel modified technique.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  : The continuous suture technique has numerous advantages as simple, quick, and effective for aortic valve replacement; however, it is technically difficult. We have modified the continuous suture technique and evaluated our new technique in patients with aortic stenosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  : Between July 2007 and May 2010, 86 patients with aortic valve stenosis underwent aortic valve replacement alone or with other concomitant cardiac procedures including mitral valve surgery in our hospital. The patients were randomly divided into two groups: group A (n = 43) in which the continuous suture technique with some modifications was used and group B (n = 43) in which the conventional interrupted suture technique was used. There were no statistical differences between two groups in age, sex, body surface area, concomitant cardiac procedures, blood loss, and postoperative extubation time.
  
  
  RESULTS
  : The aortic cross-clamp time, cardiopulmonary bypass time, operation time, and hospital stay were significantly shorter in group A than that in group B, and the valve size was significantly larger in group A. No perivalvular leak was detected in postoperative echocardiograms. All patients recovered satisfactorily without complications associated with suture technique or prosthesis. During follow-up of 4 to 38 months, there were no clinically significant complications in group A, while one patient in group B developed perivalvular leakage requiring reoperation 3 months after surgery.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  : Our modified continuous suture method is useful for aortic valve replacement in patients with aortic stenosis and beneficial for the patients because the procedure is less invasive and a larger valve can be implanted.
authors.affiliation: From the Department of General and Cardiothoracic Surgery, Kanazawa University School of Medical Science, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan.
authors.forename: Go
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Teruaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ushijima
authors.forename: Shigeyuki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tomita
authors.forename: Shojiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.forename: Yoshinao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Koshida
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Iino