Under Pressure—To See or Not To See

Abstract

While mitral valve repair has clearly been established as the procedure of choice for degenerative mitral regurgitation with improvements in widespread adoption, valve-sparing aortic root replacement, on the other hand, for aneurysmal disease and/or aortic regurgitation remains poorly adopted, constituting only 11% of all root procedures in The Society of Thoracic Surgeons database.1 Yet, after 3 decades of performing aortic valve-sparing, Dr David’s pioneering work has shown excellent clinical outcomes with low rates of adverse events during 20 years of follow-up, with only 10% moderate to severe aortic insufficiency and 6% risk of reoperation.