Congenital: Aortic Valve
Commentary: Why the difference?
The surgeons from Shanghai Children's Medical Center have reported their outcomes in infants and children with anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery (ALCAPA).1 Their series of 105 patients in the past 10 years had an overall mortality rate of 14%. The most recent Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery database report has a total of 135 patients operated on for this diagnosis between 2015 and 2018.2 In that series, there was no mortality! That is obviously quite a large difference in outcomes.Commentary: Innovation in pediatrics: Aortic valve ring
It is rare in the current era to review an operation that is truly a novel procedure for pediatric patients. The case report from Wolsky and colleagues1 is to my knowledge the first case report of a pediatric patient with bicuspid aortic valve and severe aortic valve insufficiency having a quite successful internal aortic ring annuloplasty. The bicuspid annuloplasty ring has been previously reported in adult patients but it appears that it can also be used in appropriately selected pediatric patients.
