Intentional Fracture of Bioprosthetic Valve Frames in Patients Undergoing Valve-in-Valve Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve Replacement.

Background: Percutaneous transcatheter pulmonary valve replacement (TPVR) has good clinical and hemodynamic outcomes in treating dysfunctional bioprosthetic valves (BPV) in the pulmonary position. Valve-in-valve therapy can further decrease the inner diameter (ID), potentially resulting in patient-prosthesis mismatch in patients with smaller BPVs.

Methods And Results: To evaluate feasibility and outcomes of intentional BPV fracture to enlarge the pulmonary valve orifice with TPVR, 37 patients from 13 centers who underwent TPVR with intended BPV fracture were evaluated.

Endocarditis and Incomplete Endothelialization 12 Years after Amplatzer Septal Occluder Deployment.

A 4-year-old boy had a 15-mm atrial septal defect repaired percutaneously with use of an Amplatzer Septal Occluder. At age 16 years, he presented with a week's history of fever, chills, dyspnea, fatigue, and malaise. Cultures grew methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus.

Pseudoaneurysm of surgically reconstructed right ventricular outflow tract.

Surgical reconstruction of the right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) for congenital heart disease can rarely result in the serious complication of pseudoaneurysm development, with or without symptoms. We report on a case of clinically apparent pseudoaneurysm of the RVOT after homograft replacement for a patient with a history of tetralogy of Fallot.