Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Durability of Homografts Used to Treat Complex Aortic Valve Endocarditis

2015; Elsevier BV; Volume: 99; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.athoracsur.2014.11.002

1552-6259

Willem Flameng, Willem Daenen, Ramadan Jashari, Paul Herijgers, Bart Meuris,

Cardiac Valve Diseases and Treatments

BackgroundAcute bacterial endocarditis may be extremely destructive for cardiac valves and their periannular structures. It has been suggested that complex reconstruction procedures require the use of homografts because of their versatility and potency to resist repeated infection.MethodsWe studied the long-term results of 69 patients with complex endocarditis who received homografts in the aortic position.ResultsThe results after a mean follow-up of 8.1 ± 5.1 years (median, 8.0 years) showed that the recurrence of endocarditis even in these complex cases is low (7%), but the incidence of structural valve degeneration (SVD) is high. Freedom from SVD at 10 years is only 60.0%. When aortic homografts degenerate, they predominantly calcify.ConclusionsThe use of homografts to reconstruct endocarditis-related aortic valve destruction is associated with a low recurrence of endocarditis but a high incidence of SVD in the long run.