[Surgical treatment of the aortic root dilatation]

The aorta is considered as pathologically dilatated when the diameter of the aortic root and of the ascending aorta is exceeding 50% of its standard diameter for a determined body masc. The aortic root dilatation is frequently associated with valve's pathology, rupture and dissection are two serious events that might occur; are linked with high mortality and are closely connected to aortic diameter and to wall's pathology, so that the elective indication is essential and it basically depends on those two factors. There are different technical alternatives, anatomical and functional, of the aortic root, the procedure's election is most specially based on patient's age, on pathological substract, on anticoagulation risk, and on possible infection, etc. We wish to report our experience performed from 1990 onto 2004 with 364 cases of aortic root surgery, of which 312 were elective interventions and 52 were emergencies, with a mortality of 4.8% and 19.2% respectively, and a global mortality of 6.8% using the different procedures. The choice of procedure is a multifactorial decision and it is necessary try offering the patient, the most idoneus individualized solution, according to personal characteristics. The different surgical techniques (valved conduits, remodelling procedures, biological grafts, etc.) can be carried out with low figures of morbid-mortality and excellent long term outcomes.