Root Reimplantation and Aortic Annuloplasty With External Ring in Bicuspid Aortic Valve: An Anatomical Comparison

Aortic annuloplasty has demonstrated to be a protective factor in valve-sparing root replacement and aortic valve repair. Both reimplantation for aortic root aneurysms and external ring annuloplasty for isolated aortic regurgitation have demonstrated good long-term results. The aim of this anatomical study is to compare aortic reimplantation with Valsalva graft with aortic external ring annuloplasty in bicuspid aortic valves, analyzing their morphological features with CT scan. We selected 56 patients with bicuspid aortic valve who underwent reimplantation procedure with Valsalva graft or external ring annuloplasty; after propensity-matching, 2 homogeneous groups of 10 patients each were obtained. Through multiplanar ECG-gated CT-Scan reconstructions, pre- and postoperative, aortic annular, and valve geometrical characteristics were compared (diameters, perimeter, area and ellipticity index for the annulus; effective height, coaptation length and commissural height for the valve). Aortic root volume was also analyzed. Postoperative comparison of the two groups showed similar geometric features of the aortic annulus in terms of major and minor diameters, perimeter, area and ellipticity index. Analysis of valve's parameters showed similar results in terms of effective height and coaptation length (respectively 10.9 ± 2.1 mm and 7.5 ± 1.9 mm in External Ring group and 10.1 ± 2.0 mm and 7.6 ± 1.6 mm in the Reimplantation group). Both techniques achieve an efficient annuloplasty with similar anatomical results on bicuspid the aortic valves. The stability of these results needs to be confirmed by long-term clinical and echocardiographic follow-up.