Aortic infective endocarditis managed by the Ross procedure

The excellent clinical results with homografts inserted for aortic endocarditis encouraged us to take this method one step further, believing that the placement of a pulmonary autograft which is totally viable and antibiotic-perfused would be an even better choice for valve replacement. We applied this technique in 13 consecutive patients with infective aortic endocarditis, achieving excellent early results. Our follow up extending to 30 months continues to show excellent results with 0% re-infection and 0% mortality. We conclude from our experience that this technique affords excellent results in curing the infection with the lowest chance of thromboembolism, the lack of need for anticoagulation and only a small chance of reoperation in the future.