ULTRASONIC DECALCIFICATION OF AORTIC VALVE IN MODERN ERA: A CASE REPORT

Abstract

Aortic stenosis (AS) – a constantly progressing disease characterized by thickening and calcification of leaflets of the valve, which leads to obstruction of the blood outflow from the left ventricular (LV), inadequate cardiac output, heart failure, and even sudden death. Prevalence of stenosis consistently increases with age, 0.2% incidence observes in the 50–59 year cohort of patients and almost 10% in patients from the 80–89 year cohort. We report the case of a 78-year-old man who presented with severe aortic valve stenosis. Since conventional valve replacement was problematic because of a small annular diameter we performed ultrasonic aortic valve decalcification. As a result, the systolic pressure gradient across the aortic valve decreased from 106 mm Hg to 22 mm Hg. Our case demonstrated that even in modern era ultrasonic aortic valve decalcification can be an effective option for restoration of mobility of the aortic valve cusps. We advocate the use of it for elderly patients with small aortic annulus in which surgical or transcatheter valve replacement, valve reconstruction could be extremely difficult or unavailable and consider ultrasonic valve decalcification as an additional tool in cardiac surgeon’s hands.