Aortic root enlargement in octogenarian patients results in less patient prosthesis mismatch.

Background: Aortic root enlargement has not been well studied as a modality to prevent patient prosthesis mismatch in octogenarian patients with a small aortic root.

Methods: We reviewed the records of 117 octogenarian patients who received surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR) between 1993 and 2010. From this group, 87 patients received a 19-mm AVR (small aortic valve, SAV group) and 30 received an aortic root enlargement and a 21-mm AVR (aortic root enlargement, ARE group).