Indications of aortic valve reconstruction surgery by Ozaki
procedure
The mean age of our study cohort was 52.9 with the youngest was only 19
years old and 38.9% was under 50. These patients would have been
indicated to receive mechanical aortic valve replacement according to
AHA recommendations.14 However, we decided to perform
the Ozaki procedure due to the following reasons: (1) In developing
countries including Vietnam, it is difficult to administer and monitor
anticoagulants especially for patients in remote areas and ethnic
minorities. (2) The studies reported by Ozaki and Lida suggested that
the group of young patients had a low rate of reconstructed valve
impairment during a mid-term follow-up.15,16
The advantage of Ozaki’s technique was the total resection of the
diseased cusps; therefore, it could be implemented to different types of
aortic valve disease including stenosis, regurgitation, and a
combination of both.11 The previous approaches such as
cusps expansion all have some limitations in the case of aortic
stenosis.
Other authors (Ozaki et al.11 and Krane et
al.17) performed aortic valve reconstruction in cases
of both isolated aortic valve disease and in combination with other
surgeries such as coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), mitral valve
repair or replacement. Nevertheless, our study enrolled only patients
with isolated aortic valve disease because (1) With a new technique, the
selection of isolated AVD would reduce surgical and aortic cross-clamp
time; (2) Outcomes evaluation would not be influenced by various
factors.