AORTIC VALVE REPLACEMENT

Precise determination of the size of aortic annulus is very important for thepreoperative evaluation before aortic valve replacement. Objectives: To determine thepreoperative prosthesis size using echocardiography in patients undergoing aortic valvereplacement. Study Design: Prospective observational study. Setting: Ch. Pervaiz ElahiInstitute of Cardiology (CPEIC) Multan. Period: January 2013 to October 2014. Methods: (100patients) Aortic annulus sizes were measured with TTE one week before surgery and with thehelp of sizer per-operatively. The data was analyzed by using SPSS V16. Quantitative variableswere analyzed using mean and standard deviation and percentages were used for qualitativevariables. Dependent sample t test was used to see accuracy of TTE in measuring aortic annulussize. Results: Out of hundred patients, 84(84%) were male. Mean age of the patients was 33.77+13.17 years. 51% patients underwent isolated Aortic valve replacement; redo-operations weredone only in 4% patients. In 96% patient’s mechanical prosthesis was used and in 4% patient’sboiprosthesis was used for valve replacement. We found no significant difference in Aorticannulus measured pre-operatively with the TTE (23.54+ 3.54) and measured per-operativewith the sizer (23.96+3.36) with highly insignificant p-value 0.58.Aortic annulus size was almostsame measured by these two techniques. Conclusion: Aortic annulus size measured with TTEhelps to arrange the optimum size prosthesis before aortic valve replacement surgery.