Abstract
BACKGROUND Aortic valve stenosis is the most common valve disease in the
elderly. Sutureless aortic valve replacement has been introduced as an
alternative to conventional AVR in elderly high-risk patients. The aim
of this study is reporting our single-center experience regarding early
outcomes. METHODS Between December 2014 and December 2019, 91 patients
(45 Women, 46 Males) were undergone aortic valve replacement in our
clinic (49 Sutureless, 42 conventional). Perioperative clinical and
echocardiographic outcomes were assessed in all patients. RESULTS The
average age was 73.08±7.53 and 66.26±8.63 for sutureless and
conventional groups. The mean cross-clamp time and the cardio- pulmonary
bypass (CPB) time were 72.86 and 91.88 min, and 104.96 and 119.81 min,
respectively. In sutureless group, 30 (61.2%) patients underwent
additional procedures. These were CABG, mitral interventions, tricuspid
repair, ascending aortic surgery and myxoma. Preoperative peak and mean
pressure gradients decreased from 78.16 and 48.95 mmHg to 17.47 and
10.06 mmHg postoperatively for sutureless group. It was 71.53 and 43.89
to 29.16 and 15.14 for conventional group. Paravalvular leak and
permanent pace-maker requirement due to AV-block rates were 6.1%. The
mean ICU stay were 3.69 and 2.31 days, mean hospital stay were 10.08 and
8.62, 30-day overall mortality rates were 8.2% and 4.8% for sutureless
and conventional groups. CONCLUSION The evaluation of our experience
suggests that sutureless aortic valve replacement has advantages in
terms of shorter cross-clamp and CPB duration, and postoperative aortic
gradients. Its benefits could be more prominent in complex cases or
minimally invasive surgery