Striving for physiologic coaptation: An experimental and innovative approach towards designing and implanting aortic neo-leaflets.

Aortic valve repair has emerged as the treatment of choice for congenital aortic valvular disease, avoiding the need for a reoperation associated with stented prosthesis overgrowth. The introduction of a leaflet implant represents a recent advancement in a field that originated early techniques, such as simple commissurotomies. In our experimental approach, we assessed two established leaflet-sizing techniques by analysing their resultant coaptation areas.