A study on safety and efficacy of Otaki technique in very small aortic root

Abstract

Aortic stenosis tends to pose a challenge to the surgeon when it is associated with a small size annulus. The conundrum as to whether to use a small prosthesis with a borderline effective orifice are index(EOAI) or go for a technically challenging root enlargement procedure in these cases remains. Various such techniques have been described by Kono and associates, Otaki, Nicks and colleagues, Manouguian & Seybold-Epting, and Nunez and associates. In this paper, we describe our experience with the bidirectional enlargement technique described by Yamaguchi and Otaki