Mechanical Aortic Valve Prostheses in the Small Aortic Root: Top Hat Versus Standard CarboMedics Aortic Valve

Mechanical aortic valve replacement in the small aortic root is associated with substantial perioperative mortality, in particular in the subset of patients requiring additional cardiac surgical procedures. Nevertheless, long-term outcome is satisfying. Because the type of prosthesis does not predict outcome in the multivariate Cox model, we conclude that use of the smaller Top Hat prosthesis can be recommended for the challenging cohort of patients with a small aortic root.